|
Dances
Saila DanceOnly males participate
in this group dance, performed during public functions, national festivals, and
political rallies, and in January after cutting the crop. All the dancers hold
two hard bamboo sticks and strike the sticks of their neighbour in unison.
Suwa DanceThis is a dance by
which a young girl lets a young boy know she is interested in him. When a
marriageable young boy listens this song and sees the girl dancing, he sends a
marriage proposal to her parents. It is also danced to please the goddess of
wealth.
Karma Dance
"Karam" is a
tree worshipped by the locals. According to legend, in an ancient war, only a
young couple that hid in the hollow trunk of this tree was left alive, and ever
since then this tree has been regarded as sacred. The karma dance is peformed
according to caste, but holds the same significance across all castes.
Male and female
dancers are chained together to form a circle. A branch of the karam tree is
passed among the dancers as they sing and dance in praise of the karam tree.
This branch should not touch the earth. At the end of the dance, it is washed
with milk and rice beer and later it is planted in the middle of the dancing
arena.
PanthiConveying the spirit
of their guru's renunciation and the teachings of saint poets like R Panthi,
the folk dance of the Satnami community, has religious overtones. Panthi is
performed on Maghi Purnima, the anniversary of the birth of Guru Ghasidas. The
dancers dance around a jaitkhamb set up for the occasion, to songs eulogizing
their spiritual head. The songs reflect a view of nirvaamdas and Dadu. Dancers
with bent torsos and swinging arms dance, carried away by their devotion. As
the rhythm quickens, they perform acrobatics and form human pyramids.
Pandwani
Pandavani is a folk
ballad form performed predominantly in Chhattisgarh. It depicts the story of
the Pandavas, the leading characters in the epic Mahabharata. The artists in
the Pandavani narration consist of a lead artist and some supporting singers
and musicians. There are two styles of narration in Pandavani, Vedamati and
Kapalik. In the Vedamati style the lead artist narrates in a simple manner by
sitting on the floor throughout the performance. The Kaplik style is livelier,
where the narrator actually enacts the scenes and characters.
Teejan Bai is an famous sxponent of Pandavani. Rawat Nacha
Rawat Nacha, the folk
dance of cowherds, is a traditional dance of Yaduvanshis (clan of Yadu) as
symbol of worship to Krishna from the 4th day of Diwali(Goverdhan Puja) till
the time of Dev Uthani Ekadashi (day of awakening of the gods after a brief
rest) which is the 11th day after Diwali according to the Hindu calendar . The
dance closely resembles Krishna's dance with the gopis (milkmaids).
In Bilaspur, the Rawat Nach Mahotsav folk dance festival is organized annually since 1978. Tens of hundreds of Rawat dancers from remote areas participate. Festivals
|
|