Indian dance

A few other characteristics The most important characteristics of Indian dance are esthetical. But there are others, including the fact that it belongs to Indianized cultures. Indianized cultures are indeed dance-conscious, more than in most other cultures. Dance is a predominant, if not central, manifestation of Indian culture. Theater, dance, puppetry, literature, religion… almost all cultural aspects are related to stories and their enactment. Most figures in most art forms are represented in dance or dance-like poses.

Concerning the religious background, Hinduism is clearly the mainstream. Dance already had an important ritual function in the Brahmanic period, but the more sophisticated and accomplished forms must have arisen with the subsequent developments of Hinduism. A Hindu deity, Siwa, is particularly connected to dance. His aspect as Siwa Nataraja (Siwa King of dance) is a significant Hindu concept. If Buddhism was occasionally associated with dancing, it was because of the existing cultural context of the people. Buddhism does not rely on dance in its principal exercise that is meditation.

The performance setting can be the temple or any area made sacred for the occasion. Another setting was court entertainment. These two settings were not mutually exclusive.

The stories often enacted are typically taken from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. This is the case not only for dance but for the other stage arts too, such as shadow puppet play.

There is a good number of traditional treatises, mainly in India, concerning dance and drama. The Natyasastra is a well known one.

Indian dance isn't on the whole a martial dance (like Brazilian capoeira), although martial forms or sequences exist. Some gestures can be adapted from martial arts. Indian dance is not specially a fitness program (like aerobics), although it makes the articulations more flexible and trains the muscles in a static way. Body and hands become amazingly supple. It is not specially athletic (like ballet), even though it does produce sweat. It is more sophisticated technically than African and disco dances, and the kinetics are different. It is not altogether sexually provocative (like some African and Polynesian dances, and belly dance) although it can take extremely erotic forms. These erotic forms are not to be confused with the trivial vulgar erotic dancing of Hindi movies.

In performance, the quantity of dancers varies from solo to group. Most often, it is solo. Duo and trio formations are quite common. Such formations can enhance a visual rhythm. Greater numbers exist but there it is never disorganized. Both men and women dance. Female characters can be danced by women as well as men. Male characters are normally danced by men, but sometimes by women too. Dance forms are more or less in feminine or masculine styles. It is comparable to the piano and forte of music. Feminine styles (lasya in Sanskrit) correspond most of the time to a feminine or gentle male character. Masculine ones (tandawa in Sanskrit) corresond to strong or harsh characters, to warriors, or angry characters. Gestures are more vigorous. Tandawa dances can even take wild forms. Tandawa is also the name of a special group of dances performed by Siwa.

Dance and music are related through rhythm. In both India and Southeast Asia, a particular instrument is strongly connected to Indian dance : a horizontal double-headed cylindrical drum. It has a great variety of size and shape but it is always longer than the diameter and the membranes are stretched with W or Y-shaped lacing covering the round surface. It can be a truncated cone or almost perfect cylinder. It sometimes seems like two truncated cones joined together at their larger ends. The cylinder is sometimes straight, sometimes like inflated. The curve may contain a more or less sharp bend, which isn't at the exact middle. The drummer plays with a hand at each membrane, sometimes a stick in one hand. Rhythm unites drum and dance. In India and Southeast Asia, there is a strong affinity between this drum and Indian dance.