Page 111 - English Class 06

The genesis of the contemporary styles of classical dances can be traced to the period

between 1300-1400 AD. India offers a lot of dances, all of which can be traced to different
parts of the country, each form represents the culture and ethos of a particular region or a
particular culture.

We are now going to travel throughout India and having a fall with classical dances of
various parts of India. improvisation : performance

KATHAKALI OR MOHINI ATTAM – KERALA impart : provide

Kathakali literally means story play. These stories are specially designed to depict the
victory of good over falsehood or bad.

Kathakali has speciality of elaborated make-up
and dressing. Special attention is given to the
makeup so that the facial expression can be
elaborated. These expressions of Satvik Bhavas’ or

the Godly expressions, ‘Rajsik Bhavas’ or the
heroic expressions and the malicious expressions
or ‘Tamsik Bhavas’ or the demonic expressions.
Slow and medium steps and tempo of the dance is

able to find adequate space for the improvisation of the ‘Bhavas.’
BHARAT NATYAM – TAMIL NADU

This is an ancient dance form, which has been

forwarded from the religious teachers called ‘gurus’
to the women devoted to the service of the God
called the ‘Devdaasis.’ These dance forms were only
performed in the sacred environment of temples only.
It took the time of about seven years to impart the

training of Bharatnatyam to the devdaasis.

KUCHIPUDI – ANDHRA PRADESH
This dance form is a dnace - drama, associated
with ‘Sanskrit theatrical’ called ‘Bhagvata Mela

Natakam.’ in this dance form the actors sing and
dance the whole story. This dance form is a blend
of folk and classical dances. This is why this

technique has great freedom and fluidity. This
dance was performed as offerings in temples of
Nallur and Merratu.

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