Indian dancing

INDIAN DANCING

Manipuri is soft and graceful, resembling Nature in her kinder aspects. The dancers appear like corn stirring in the breeze, or waves rippling in soft undulations. They are as one with Nature. The dances are not characterized by the vigour of Bharata Natyam ot of Kathakali, nor by the extreme swiftness of Kathak. They are as light as thistledown.

In Manipur the village girls seem to imbibe dancing with their mothers’ milk. Their limbs are supple, and grace and ease mark all their movements. Their natural ability is encouraged and developed in vatious State-supported institutions, this being the only part of India where such a system prevails. Every Manipuri village has a temple dedicated either to Chaitanya, the Dancing Saint, or to Krishna-Radha or Krishna-Balarama. Attached to each temple is a dancing hall known as a nautch ghar.

Manipuri dances are composed either for male dancers or for male and female dancers jointly, the latter being, generally, unmattied girls. In the famous Ras-Lee/a, the most popular dance of this school, all the artists are girls except the man who takes the tole of Krishna.

MUSIC, COSTUMES, AND ENSEMBLES

The musical accompaniment to Manipuri dances is played on an instrument rather like a guitar called the Rfo/, and the mwridangam and dholak. The dancers often sing while performing but sometimes the singing is done by a chorus whose members do not join in the dance. When the drummer and the dancer together execute certain quick 7a/as, each in his own medium, the tempo of the dance increases and the quick rhythmic pattern is enchanting to watch. The costumes ate vety picturesque, as can be seen from the photograph on page 62 and the sketch on page 63. The women wear a tight-fitting conical cap of black velvet or other material, trimmed with a border of synthetic pearls, under a thin white veil. Modern dancers often discard the cap in favour of a bun on top and to the side of the head, and haloed with flowets. The cho//, or tightfitting bodice, is usually of velvet, with tight sleeves trimmed with gold embroidery. The gagra, ot flounced skitt, is of a striking colour,

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