Indian dancing

INDIAN DANCING

THE COMPOSITION OF KATHAK Kathak is divided into two parts: (1) Torabs, comprising footwork, which is the most important part of Kathak. (2) Gaths, or gestures.

TORAHS

The swifter the sorabs, the mote skilled the dancer. The hands play very little part here; how they are used is often left to the discretion of the dancer. There are forahs for men and torahs for women, these being derived, supposedly, from Shiva and Parvati.

What exactly is a torah? It is composed of syllables with no inherent meaning in them. These syllables provide the rhythm for the dancet’s feet while keeping within the /a/a, or timing. When dohas, or verses, ate sung, the footwork is accompanied by gestures to interpret the meaning of the songs.

Tukaras ot paranas ate dance mettes which form a part of every torah. They are complex, and with the increase in /aya, or thythm, and za/, ot beats, they become swifter. These dance metres have perforce to follow the do/s, or beats, of the sab/a, or drum. Each tukra, which means literally a piece or bit, interprets in footwork a single word of the verse being sung at the time of the dance. It is obvious from this how swiftly it must be executed.

The dance measures in Kathak are known as /ayas. They are of three kinds:

(a) Viluhita, or slow measutes. (b) Madhija, or medium speed measures. (c) Druta, or rapid measutes.

The /a/a, ot time measures, accentuate, as it were, each syllable of a verse, thus helping the footwork to correspond with the accompanying melody. A single a/a, composed of a collection of beats, one for every syllable, is known as an award.

The avard can again be split into three parts:

(a) Talas, or accented measutes. (b) Khalis, or blank measutes. (c) Sama, ot the final rhythm.

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