Kathak Dance Technique. These features include the division of the dance into pure nrtta and mimetic abhinaya sections as well as the use of the mudras, the symbolic hand gestures. In kathak the hand gestures do not have such a central role as in other solo forms. They are merely natural extensions of the dance gestures, though, of course. Kathak, an Art of Devotion. Learn to dance Kathak online from your home and discover the liveliness and energy which imparts to you What you have to do is just click your way to a world of learning and select your choice of location.
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Kathak dancer performing at Lucknow Kathak Sansthan. Kathak (: कथक) is the Hindi name for one of the eight major forms of. The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards of ancient known as Kathakars or storytellers. The term Kathak is derived from the Vedic word Katha which means 'story', and Kathakar which means 'the one who tells a story', or 'to do with stories'. Wandering Kathakars communicated stories from the great epics and ancient mythology through dance, songs and music in a manner similar to early Greek theatre. Kathak dancers tell various stories through their hand movements and footwork, but most importantly through their facial expressions.
Kathak evolved during the, particularly by incorporating the childhood and stories of the Hindu god, as well as independently in the courts of north Indian kingdoms. Kathak is found in three distinct forms, called 'gharanas', named after the cities where the Kathak dance tradition evolved –,. While the Jaipur gharana focuses more on the foot movements, the Banaras and Lucknow gharanas focus more on facial expressions and graceful hand movements. Stylistically, the Kathak dance form emphasizes rhythmic foot movements, adorned with small bells ( ), and the movement harmonized to the music. The legs and torso are generally straight, and the story is told through a developed vocabulary based on the gestures of arms and upper body movement, facial expressions, stage movements, bends and turns.
The main focus of the dance becomes the eyes and the foot movements. The eyes work as a medium of communication of the story the dancer is trying to communicate. With the eyebrows the dancer gives various facial expressions. The difference between the sub-traditions is the relative emphasis between acting versus footwork, with Lucknow style emphasizing acting and Jaipur style famed for its spectacular footwork. Kathak as a performance art survived and thrived as an, learnt and innovated from one generation to another verbally and through practice.
It transitioned, adapted and integrated the tastes of the Mughal courts in the 16th and 17th century particularly, was ridiculed and declined in the colonial British era, then was reborn as India gained independence and sought to rediscover its ancient roots and a sense of national identity through the arts. Part of on the. Contents.
Etymology and nomenclature The term Kathak is rooted in the term Katha (Sanskrit: कथा) which means 'story, conversation, traditional tale'. Kathak refers to one of the major classical dance form primarily found in northern India, with a historical influence similar to Bharatanatyam in south India, Odissi in east India and other major classical dances found in South Asia. It differs from the numerous folk dance forms found in north and other parts of the Indian subcontinent. The Kathak dancers, in the ancient India, were traveling bards and were known as. Kathakas, or Kathakar. Kathak has inspired simplified regional variants, such as the Bhavai – a form of rural theatre focussing on the tales of Hindu goddesses , and one which emerged in the medieval era, is presently found in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Another variant that emerged from ancient Kathak is.
Kathak performance by Sharmila Sharma and Rajendra Kumar Gangani at the Guimet Museum (November 2007) The most studied version of the Natya Shastra text consists of about 6000 verses structured into 36 chapters. The text, states Natalia Lidova, describes the theory of Tāṇḍava dance , the theory of rasa, of bhāva, expression, gestures, acting techniques, basic steps, standing postures – all of which are part of Indian classical dances including Kathak. Dance and performance arts, states this ancient Hindu text, are a form of expression of spiritual ideas, virtues and the essence of scriptures. The 2nd century BC panels found in show the dancers in a vertical stance with their arms' positions already suggesting today's Kathak movements. Most of the dancers have one arm near the ear in a 'pataka hasta'. In subsequent years, the hasta was lowered to the bust level. The term Kathakas in the sense of 'storytellers' appears in ancient Hindu texts, such as the.
— Adi Parva CCVI.2-3, Mahabharata, Book 1 Bards, actors, dancers, songsters and musical reciters of legends and stories are mentioned hundreds of times in the Hindu Epics. Bhakti movement era Textual studies suggest that 'Kathak' as a classical dance form likely started in Banares and from there migrated northwest to Lucknow, Jaipur and other parts of north and northwest India. The Lucknow tradition of Kathak dance attributes the style to a devotee named Ishwari from the village in, who credited Hindu god appearing in his dream and asking him to develop 'dance as a form of worship'. Ishwari taught his descendants, who in turn preserved the learning and developments through an oral tradition over six generations ultimately yielding the Lucknow version of the Kathak dance – a family tree that is acknowledged in both Hindu and Muslim music-related Indian literature. The evolution in Kathak dance theme during the Bhakti movement centered primarily around divine Krishna, his lover Radha and milkmaids ( gopis) – around legends and texts such as the found in the tradition of Hinduism. The love between Radha and Krishna became symbolism for the love between (soul within) and the supreme source (Cosmic soul everywhere), a theme that dance ballet and mimetic plays of Kathak artists expressed.
Shinjini Kulkarni performing Kathak. The Mughal era courts and nobles accepted Kathak as a form of aristocratic entertainment, which low income families were willing to provide.
However, the dance became more abstract and erotic, less as a means of communication of spiritual or religious ideas, and in cases the dancers innovated by emphasizing the eroticism and sexuality the Muslim audience wanted while keeping the message such as those of Krishna-Radha embedded in the dance. According to Drid Williams: It should be remembered that the first Kathak dancers were, after all, Hindus who danced for Moghul overlords. Too much outward expression of religious belief was without doubt undesirable. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the wide use of 'abstract' dancing, intricate bell work ( tatkar), dazzling turns and the fleeting, transient, glimpses of Radha and Krishna in Kathak arose both to remind the dancers about their reasons for dancing and (gently, unobtrusively) to deceive their courtly Moghul audiences. Perhaps tatkar and tukras formed the bulk of these first dancers' performances.
Gradually more and more images, then stories of Krishna and Radha crept in. — Drid Williams, Anthropology and the Dance Over time, the Kathak repertoire added Persian and Central Asian themes, such as the whirling of Sufi dance, the costumes replaced Saris with items that bared midriff and included a transparent veil of the type common with medieval Harem dancers. When the colonial European officials began arriving in India, the Kathak court entertainment they witnessed was a synthesis of the ancient Indian tradition and Central Asian-Persian dance form, and the Kathak dance performers were called the 'nautch girls' (or natch, a derivative of the more difficult to pronounce Sanskrit natya). British Raj era With the spread of colonial British rule in the 19th century India, Kathak along with all other classical dance forms were discouraged and it severely declined. This was in part the result of the Victorian morality of sexual repressiveness along with Anglican missionaries who criticized Hinduism. Reverend James Long, for example, proposed that Kathak dancers should forget ancient Indian tales and Hindu legends, and substitute them with European legends and Christian tales. Missionaries recorded their frustration in Church Missionary Review when they saw Hindu audiences applaud and shout 'Ram, Ram' during Kathak performances.
The seductive gestures and facial expressions during Kathak performances in Temples and family occasions were caricatured in The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood, published at the start of the 20th century, as evidence of 'harlots, debased erotic culture, slavery to idols and priests' tradition, and Christian missionaries demanded that this must be stopped, launching the 'anti-dance movement' or 'anti-nautch movement' in 1892. Officials and newspapers dehumanized the Kathak dancers and the sources of patronage were pressured to stop supporting the Kathak performing 'nautch girls' (also termed as devadasis and tawa'ifs in mid 20th century literature). Many accused the dance form as a front for prostitution, while revivalists questioned the constructed histories by the colonial writers. Not only did missionaries and colonial officials ridicule the Kathak dancers, Indian men who had been educated in colonial Britain and had adapted to Victorian prudery joined the criticism, states Margaret Walker, possibly because they had lost their cultural connection, no longer understood the underlying spiritual themes behind the dance, and assumed this was one of the 'social ills, immoral and backward elements' in their heritage that they must stamp out. However, the Hindu families continued their private tutoring and kept the Kathak art alive as an. Kathak teachers also shifted to training boys to preserve the tradition, as most of the 20th-century ridicule had been directed at Kathak 'nautch girls'.
Kathak was brought to the attention of audiences outside India in the early 20th century through Kalkaprasad Maharaj. Post colonial era The movement to end the colonial era and for an independent India, states Walker, also witnessed a revival of Kathak and more broadly, a cultural ferment and effort to reclaim culture and rediscover history. The Kathak revival movements co-developed in Muslim and Hindu gharanas, particularly by the Kathak-Misra community. Of these the Jaipur and Lucknow sub-traditions of Kathak have attracted more scholarship. The expressive (nritya) stage of the Kathak dance, dressed in Hindu costumes. Nritya is slower and expressive aspect of Kathak that attempts to communicate feelings, storyline particularly with spiritual themes in Hindu dance traditions. In a nritya, the dance expands to include words, musical notes and gestures to articulate a legend or message, it is more than sensory enjoyment, it aims to engage the emotions and mind of the viewer.
The expressiveness of Kathak is also found in other classical dances of India. Its roots are found in the Natyashastra text which defines drama in verse 6.10 as that which aesthetically arouses joy in the spectator, through the medium of actor's art of communication, that helps connect and transport the individual into a super sensual inner state of being. The Natya connects through abhinaya (literally, 'carrying to the spectators'), that is applying body-speech-mind and scene, wherein asserts Natyashastra, the actors communicate to the audience, through song and music. Drama in this ancient Sanskrit text, thus is an art to engage every aspect of life, in order to glorify and gift a state of joyful consciousness.
According to Massey, another important ancient text that has influenced Kathak is the Abhinaya Darpanam of Nandikeshvara (2nd century CE). In Kathak, abhinaya is in the form of expressive gestures and pantomime set to music that usually outline a legend or the plot of a well known story.
The gestures and facial expressions convey the ras (sentiment, emotional taste) and bhava (mood) of the underlying story. In the Hindu texts on dance, the guru and the artists successfully express the spiritual ideas by paying attention to four aspects of a performance: Angik (gestures and body language), Vachik (song, recitation, music and rhythm), Aharya (costume, make up, jewelry), and Satvik (artist's mental disposition and emotional connection with the story and audience, wherein the artist's inner and outer state resonates). A Kathak nritya performance, however grants flexibility to the artists and invites improvisation, and it may not be accompanied with a song or recital about the legend.
The stories in Kathak performance generally tend to be about the Hindu god Krishna (or in some cases Shiva or Devi), and the stories come from sources such as the, or the Indian Epics. This form of expressiveness is also found in thumri and Persian ghazals.
Costumes The costumes vary among Kathak performers, and are either Hindu or Muslim. The Hindu costume for female dancers has two variations.
One is based on a Sari, but is worn in a style different from the customary style that goes over the left shoulder. A Kathak artist generally wraps the sari around the waist and it hangs down from the left. A blouse called choli covers the upper body. The artist may wear a scarf (called orhni in some places). Hair, face, ear, neck, hand, wrist and ankle jewellery, typically of gold, may adorn the artist.
A tika or in the middle of forehead is common. The second variation of a Hindu Kathak dancer uses a long, full (just above the ankle), light-weight skirt usually with embroidered border that helps highlight the dance motion. The skirt is contrasted with a different color choli, and a transparent scarf typically drapes over it and the dancer's head. Jewelry is typically present in the second variation.
The Muslim costume for female dancers also uses a skirt, but includes close fitting and sometimes a long coat covering hands and the upper body. The head has a cover scarf and the jewelry is light. The Hindu costume for male Kathak performers is typically a silk draped around the waist, then usually covered with a silk scarf tied on top. The upper body may be bare, show the Hindu thread, or be covered with a loose jacket. Kathak male artists also wear jewelry, but often of stones and much simpler than the female artists.
Musical instruments such as tabla and others (left) accompany a Kathak performance. Instruments The ensemble of musical instruments vary with any Kathak performer, ranging from two to twelve classical Indian instruments or more in versions with synthetic innovations. The most common instruments that go with Kathak are tabla (a pair of hand drums) that syncs with the dancer's feet rhythms, sarangi or harmonium with manjira (hand cymbals) that meters the tal (cycle), and other instruments to add effect, depth and structure to the expressive stage of a Kathak performance. Gharanas Kathak is a diffuse tradition, of which three gharanas (schools) are more well known and studied –,. The schools place different relative emphasis between aspects of a Kathak performance such as the acting versus footwork.
The Lucknow style, for example, emphasizes acting while Jaipur style emphasizes the dance and footwork. Traditionally, the Jaipur gharana has had a strong spiritual flavor, covering a diverse range of ideas in Vaishnavism and Shaivism.