Indian Classical Dances

Know Your Classical Dances: Mohiniyattam, once thrust into obscurity during British rule, revived in early 20th century

From being categorised as a dance of the vaishya or the prostitute to receiving recognition as a prolific art form and a codification into the realm of the ‘classical,’ Mohiniyattam has perhaps been one of the few dance styles to have undergone such humongous shifts through history.

Know Your Classical Dances: How Kathak has historically served as a medium of storytelling that cuts across classes

Throughout history, quite unlike most classical art forms, Kathak has seldom been performed as an offering to a deity, instead from its earliest stages, it has been a recital directed at an audience comprising its patrons as well as the common people.

Ashtanayika of classical dance: On the virahotkanthita, a woman reminiscing over her separated lover

This series is an exploration of the ashtanayika of classical dance — the eight types of heroines which depict a woman's many thoughts and emotional states. In part 2, a look at the virahotkanthita.

Romancing the arts: Danseuse Gauri Sharma Tripathi on taal in Kathak, shifts in the guru-shishya relationship

Numerous taals are a part of the vast literature of classical art forms but Gauri Sharma Tripathi, for her part, favours the teentaal which is woven in a cycle of 16 beats or the dhamar (14 beats).

Mandakini Trivedi on the meaning of style, Mohiniattam's abhinaya and the evolving guru-shishya parampara

Mohiniattam, says Mandakini Trivedi, borrows extensively from theatrical abhinaya or the art of expression employed in theatre, and its style is a very wonderful combination of introverted pure dance movements and a very vibrant, vivacious and stylised mind.