Dance

From earliest times on, dancing was connected with worship in India. In Vedic rituals, dancing played an important role. However, one cannot honestly say that Indians as a people are as fond of dancing as they are of singing. It is of course a fact that dancing never developed as a part of social life in India, as in the West. But India has preserved two forms of dance: classical and folk.

Bharatnatyam is the most beautiful of all the classical forms of dance developed in India. It originated in the South. Today it has exponents and admirers, not only all over India, but also abroad. It is an art that demands years and years of training from its students. To understand and appreciate it, the viewer must master the signs digital and facial, that the dancer uses.

Among North Indian classical dances, the best known is Manipuri. Manipuri does not depend so heavily on signs as Bharatnatyam. Odissi, Katthak and Kuchupudi are also famous Indian dance forms.

Learning about the history and techniques of these dances is a great intellectual experience; appreciating it on the stage is a deeply satisfying aesthetic experience.

Just as folk songs are an integral part of India’s musical heritage, folk dances are an important part of India’s heritage in dancing. Go to any part of rural India, and you will see villagers dancing and singing when they have a religious ceremony. They dance at festivals and melas. Not all folk dances, nor, for that matter, folk songs are about mythological episodes. Many of them tell us about the lives of the common people and about the heroes and heroines of their community. To know the meaning of Indian folk songs and dances, therefor, is to know something about the past of our rural population and their anecdotes.

[Source: The Path Divine, Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas, Dharmakshetra, Mumbai]