{"id":273,"date":"2017-10-02T17:49:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/?p=273"},"modified":"2025-11-05T12:32:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T10:32:52","slug":"classical-solo-dances-bharatanatyam-kuchipudi-orissi-and-kathak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/classical-solo-dances-bharatanatyam-kuchipudi-orissi-and-kathak\/","title":{"rendered":"Classical Solo Dances, Bharatanatyam<\/em>, Kuchipudi<\/em>, Orissi<\/em>, and Kathak<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As has already been mentioned several times, in India the borderline between \u201cclassical\u201d (margi<\/em>) and \u201cfolk\/regional\u201d styles (desi<\/em>) is not always clear. Many traditions discussed in this text evade this simplified categorisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, during the 20th<\/sup> century it became established that six and later eight major schools of dance were defined as \u201cclassical\u201d styles. The former classification includes bharatanatyam<\/em> (originally from Tamil Nadu), manipuri<\/em> (Manipur), kathak<\/em> (a Persian-influenced, originally North Indian style), kathakali<\/em> (Kerala), kuchipudi<\/em> (Andhra Pradesh), and orissi<\/em> (Orissa).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of them are now most often performed as solo forms and were originally performed by the devadasis<\/a><\/em>, or the female temple servants, who were given to the temple to be \u201cmarried\u201d to the main deity of the temple. This practice was closely linked with the devotional bhakti<\/em> sect of Hinduism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more regional variety of this kind of female solo dance has already been discussed in connection with the performing arts of the State of Kerala. It is mohiniattam<\/a><\/em>, which for some strange reason was not added to the list of the \u201cclassical\u201d forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these forms can be, according to the ancient Drama Manual<\/em>, the Natyashastra<\/em>, classified as soft, feminine lasya<\/em> dances. Two different dance categories are mentioned in the Natyashastra<\/em>. They are lasya<\/em> and tandava<\/em>. Strong or \u201cmasculine\u201d tandava<\/em> is related to the god Shiva\u2019s creative and destructive cosmic dance, while graceful or \u201cfeminine\u201d lasya<\/em> is said to have been created by Shiva\u2019s spouse, the goddess Parvati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lasya<\/em> also indicates a type of performance in which a solo performer both dances as well as enacts, through gestures and mime, a text sung by a singer. One characteristic of lasya<\/em> solo dances is the fact that they combine both non-narrative nrtta<\/em> sequences with the mimetic abhinaya<\/em> sequences, in which the solo dancers play all the characters mentioned in the text sung by the singer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of these lasya-<\/em>style dances, bharatanatyam<\/em> has, for historical reasons discussed later, been the dominant one. One could almost speak about the bharatanatyamisation<\/em> of other solo forms, since both mohiniattam<\/em> and kuchipudi<\/em> have been deeply influenced by its style and particularly by its repertoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northern Indian kathak<\/em>, however, stems from a very different context. In the north, following invasions from Central Asia in the 10th<\/sup>\u201312th<\/sup> centuries, large areas came under the rule of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate and, later in the 16th<\/sup> century, the Moghul Empire. Thus North India was influenced by the Islamic, particularly the Persian, culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathak<\/em> is a fruit of the fusion of the Persian-influenced Moghul culture and a local, northern Indian tradition. Kathak<\/em>, however, like bharatanatyam<\/em>, is no longer a style limited only to the region of its birth. Both are studied and performed around India as well as abroad. Internationally they are probably the best-known forms of Indian dance today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As has already been mentioned several times, in India the borderline between \u201cclassical\u201d (margi) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4557,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions\/4557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}