Indian Dance Forms

In my previous article I talked about the famous indian food, now in this article lets have a look on the world famous Indian dance forms. India is famous for its classical dances because it clearly shows the traditions and culture. Every state has its own dance forms.

• BHARATANATYAM

This dance forms originates from Tamil Nadu. It is also known as Karakattam or Sathiraattam. This is one of the major genre of dance in india traditionally performed by the solo women which depicts the cultures of southern india. This dance is traditionally a way to convey some spiritual themes and ideas.

• KATHAK

This genre of dance forms is also considered to be the most famous dance form of this country. It has derived its name from a sanskrit word 'Katha' which means story and 'Kathakar' which means a person who tells a story or depicts a story. This dance is basically done to narrate any story with hand gestures or body movements. It is originated from Uttar Pradesh or the Western India.

• KATHAKALI

This dance forms also depicts story like Kathak dance but is quite different from it. Kathakali originates from Kerala and the dancers of this dance forms wears colourful face makeup, costumes and beautiful facemask. This is mostly performed by the male dancers.

• KUCHIPUDI

This genre of dance originates from village called Kuchipudi in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Each kuchipudi dance starts with an invocation, followed by the introduction of the character/role of the customed dancer and then the dance commences. The hand gestures play a vital part in story telling.

• ODISSI

As the name suggest, this dance form is from the state of Odisha. This dance is performed to express the traditions related to the Hindu gods like lord shiva and lord surya. In this dance form, a singer play out a traditional hindu story and the dancers act on it. They wear beautiful, colourful costumes, hand gestures (mudaras) and expressions (abhinaya).

• MANIPURI

This indian classical dance form is also known as Jagoi and it is named after the state Manipur. This dance is known for its Hindu Vaishnaism themes and it is inspired with the dance-drama of Radha-Krishna. The Manipuri dancers have their own unique costumes. This dance form aims at the expression of the spiritual ideas and themes. This dance has an essence of north-eastern part of India.

• SATTRIYA

This dance form is originated from the eastern state of Assam. The roots of this dance form is from the ancient times, the Natya Shastra. The dance mostly plays the themes of Goddess Radha and Lord Krishna and sometimes the Lord Vishnu avatars such Lord Rama and Goddess Sita. They wear beautiful costumes and bright makeup.

• MOHINIYATTAM

Mohiniyattam or Mohiniattam is one of the popular indian classical dance form originated from the indian state of Kerala. This dance gets its name from the word Mohini which means an mythical avatar of Lord Vishnu - who helps the good wins over the bad by his powers. This dance is performed by solo women after lots of practices. And the song on which the women performs is mostly in Malayalam-sanskrit language.