Dance

Spontaneity, intuition and the joy of life are the soul of dance and music and the quest of every artist. The endeavor is to search for the ultimate in perfection of body and mind through these art forms. Rukmini Devi, a pioneer and one of the most renowned figures in the world of performing arts in India, has said: “The keynote of good art is when its message does not merely appeal to the senses and through them to a purely external enjoyment, but to the soul of the artiste and of the perceiver.

India offers not one, but several well-defined classical dance forms. Each of these has been nurtured in a different part of the country and has taken on the hue and texture of its region. Each represents and entire culture, the ethos of the local people and a personalised artistic signature. Chief among them and at present the most popular classical styles of dance seen on the stage are Bharata Natyam of Tamil Nadu, Oddissi of Orissa, Kathakali of Kerala, Kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, Kathak of Lucknow and Jaipur and Manipuri of Manipur. But these are not all. Several other forms of traditional dance that fall into the categories of semi-classical, folk, drama, and martial India. Today the major styles are performed by people from the region of their origin.