Dance of Rajasthan

Rajasthani dances are a spectacular celebration of life and color-and what a stupendous variety of forms! The Kachhi-ghodi is a particularly vigorous dance in which a bridegroom's party boisterously sings folk ballads and stages a mock fight with much nimble sidestepping, sharp pirouetting and brandishing of swords. A statelier dance is the ghair performed mainly in the Mewar region; regal men in fulsome, gathered white ankle-length skirts and brilliant turbans swirl slowly in alternately clockwise and anticlockwise motions, clicking long, painted sticks with each other, the periodic clash of sticks creating its own fevered cadence. There is drama in the charee dance: performers deftly execute intricate choreographic patterns, balancing brass pitchers containing smoldering cottonseeds on their heads. A stirring spectacle is the tera taali dance, traditionally performed by women in honor of the folk hero Baba Ramdev before whose image they sit, describing incredible arabesques with thirteen cymbals-two in each hand, the rest tied all over their arms and calves, in a whirl of constant, frenzied motion, each successive clash leading up to an enchanting, percussive rhythm. The sapera dance of the kalbeliyas, a snake charmer community, is sensuous and riveting in the extreme. Lissome women, dramatically dressed in black and gold, with glittering tassels woven into their raven hair, sway sensuously to a sonorous chant, which increases in tempo and vigor, ending with a flourish that leaves both performer and spectator exhilarated and exhausted.

Bhawai dancers, of course, stage the ultimate spectacle balancing seven or nine brass pots on their heads while they dance nimbly on beds of crushed glass or on the edge of swords in a performance that makes the awestruck viewer hold his breath in suspense. The unforgettable vision carried away in the heart is of the glazed-eyed, frenzied, devotional fire-dancers of Bikaner against the pitch black of the desert night. These traditional performers walk across glowing embers and have nary a blister to show for it-a factor ascribed to divine protection and blessings.

A royal dance usually performed in the zenana-traditionally out of bounds for men-and at every Rajput wedding or occasion is the ghoomar, with its incredible grace and stately movement; veiled, bejeweled women move with unhurried grace, richly embroidered skirts swirl, singing songs of love, devotion and celebration. Then there are the ever so subtle hints dropped through ghoomar songs to the stern parents.