KATHAK DANCING

God manifested in the Supreme Cosmic Dancer, Lord Nataraja. Dance evolves from divinity. The sole purpose of a Dancer is to aquire the most refined skills trough sheer dedication, discipline and devotion by giving articulation to these, to enter into the spirit of throbbing rhythm of nature and thus experience unity with God.

The Kathak Dance belongs to North India. The word Kathak originally meant story - telling with gestures. In ancient days professional story - tellers delineated episodes from the great Epics through simple, devotional and mimetic recitation. Thus like many other dance forms in India, Kathak started as a Temple Dance. Under the patronage of moghul rulers, however, Kathak evolved into highly stylised and complex art for the delight of the aristocratic few.

The Kathak Dance consists mainly in devising and executing rhythmic patterns of time - beats. In its technique, Kathak gives equal importance to pure dance (Nritta) and to mime or interpretative expression (Abhinaya). The pure dance reveals intricate footwork and a variety of spins or convolutions of the body (Chakkars), while the mime generally concerns itself with an incident from the life of Lord Krishna. Hand gestures and facial expressions are strong aspects of communicating and relating stories.

The music employed is simple - the only accompaniments neede by a Kathak performer are the Tabla, to provide rhythm and another instrument, usually the Sarangi or Sitar to play the melody.

The Dancer learns to unfold a variey of delicate and expressive poses. There is the pleasing play of the eyes and graceful movement of the hands. This is followed by a series of Torahs which devised to demonstrate the movements of the eyes, the eyebrows and the chest. Then comes the gat, the miming part of the dance which displays gat nikas or poseful steppings. There is free movement of the body where the Gymnastic abilities of the performer also come to the fore. The tempo gradually heightens, culminating in a grand show of the artistes originality and virtuosity. A special feature of the Kathak Dance is its tremendous footwork. It gradually gains in speed, tempo and reaches a climatic degree. The artiste gives a brillant demonstration of both rhythm and movement. A Kathak Dancer gets an opportunity to portray different moods in different styles of footwork and movement.

One of the outstanding exponents of the Benares Gharana (tradition) of Kathak was Gopi Krishna. His performances are marked by individualistic interpretation, superb showmanship, uncanny tempo and an imagintive temperament. Gopi Krishna was the first to introduce Tarana ( similiar to Tillana in Bharata Natyam) into the Kathak style.

In the art of drama, Bharatha was the teacher who leads the pupil from " Darkness of ignorance to the Light of Learning. " There is no Wisdom, Knowledge, Art, Craft, Device or Action that is not to be found in the Natya, " says the Guru Bharata. In ancient India Natya included Dance, Drama, Musix.

Wither the hand goes, the glance follows
Wither the glance goes, the mind follows
Wither the mind goes, the mood follows
Wither the mood follows, there is real creativeness born.

Through the hand, the Dancer possesses a power infinite in its capacity to portray the tragedy and exaltation of the human being. Somewhere in the recesses of cosmic creativeness, the hands become the conscious translators of thought to the Universe.