Music Art and culture lay at the heart of Indian society, so to truly
understand India it is in these
age old customs, dances,
paintings and words that you must look to.
India has so much to offer the visitor in terms of art and
entertainment. Every visitor should put on their must see list at least one performance of
classical Indian dancing to witness
the spectacular displays of theatre and dance. Add also, a trip to
an
Aruvedic spa to balance your mind body and spirit, plus a trip
to one of India's 13,000 cinemas and catch the latest
Bollywood
flick and you will no doubt enhance what already promises to be an amazing trip!
Dance
Like many other cultures, the peoples of Indian found expression for their religious teaching,
mythology and classical literature through dance and drama. Many schools of dance in India are
very ancient and take years for the dancer to perfect. They are often brilliant displays of co lour and
make for fantastic entertainment. There are two main forms of dance, classical and folk.
Folk dance is widespread and varied. In Punjab they have the energetic bhangra dancing whereas
in Orissa there is the more elegant fishers dance.
Classical
There are at least six major schools of classical dance in India, each extremely disciplined with its
own distinct movements, music and costume.
Bharata Natyam
Perhaps the oldest known dance form is the Bharata Natyam,
thought to be over 2000 years old. It has its origins in Tamil
Nadu, but is now danced all over India. Essentially this is highly
stylized female solo dance combining movement, music, mime,
expression and a vocabulary of hand gestures. The theme of the
dance is usually spiritual love. It was banned in India under
British Imperial rule.
Kathakali
Kathakali is the dance of Kerala in Southern India and is the only
surviving form of Sanskrit theatre today. Kata kali
means story-play; it incorporates both dance and
drama in form of story. The dancers act the stories through movement and facial expression;the musicians
narrate the stories through music and song.
Kathakali dancers have very elaborate costumes which consist of a large, billowing skirt, a
padded jacket, heavy ornaments and a heavy headdress. But it is the dramatic make up that is
really important, the color of the dancer's face allows the audience to identify each character. The
good character has his face painted green with a knife shaped moustache. The villain of the play
will have a beard; if he is superhuman he will have a white face, black for the hunter and red if a
devil. If the make up is simple this shows a gentle and spiritual character. The red eyes are
achieved through the application of a flower seed in the lower eye lid.
Kathak
The word kathak is derived from the word katha which means
"The art of storytelling." It is a northern Indian style of dancing
characterized by ankle bells and spectacular spins. Many of the
dances tell ancient Persian and Urdu poetry alongside Hindu
mythology. Kathak arose from the fusion of Hindu and Muslim
cultures that took place during the Mughal period (1526-1761).
More than any other South Asian dance form, kathak expresses
the aesthetic principles of Islamic culture.
Manipuri
Named after the place of its origin, Manipuri is arguably the most delicate, spiritual and religious
of all the dances, and although classified as a classical dance it has many elements of folk
dancing too. The dance is performed across Manipuri during April/May as part of the Dol Jatra
festival.
Kuchipudi
Kuchipudi is the classical dance form of the south eastern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Odissi Odissi, also believed to be one of the oldest classical dance forms, was originally a
temple art in
northern India. In decline as temples and artists lost the patronage of rulers and princes, this
dance had a revival in the 20th Century. Now it is arguably one of the most popular dance forms.
Like many other forms of Indian classical dance Odissi uses expression and body movement to
represent a theme or story. Often the dancers will bend their bodies in three places representing a
helix, this is a difficult dance to master, but when perfected is extremely graceful. The story most
often represented in these dances is the Krishna and Radha love story.