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movement and harmony in classical dancing the music and dancing coincide with each other and the final choreography, though seemingly evolved with simplicity, is created out of separate fragments of ordered and highly-skilled technique
In very ancient cultures dancing was closely connected with ritual Rhythmic patterns seemed to be the simplest method for the earliest man to win the favour of the gods, for good weather, for his crops, for auspiciousness in birth, marriage and death, in hunting the wild beasts of the jungle, and in the defeat of his enemies
Traces of the earliest ritual dances can be found in the reliefs on the temple walls of ancient Egypt Historians and archaeologists tell us of the ‘Dance of Lamentation', in which both men and women participated, the ‘Dance of War', and the 'Dance of Fertility' To celebrate birth, dancers, disguised as the God Bes, danced around the figure of Ta-Urt, Goddess of Birth Usually when women danced, the musicians who accompanied them were also women Then there was the funeral dance, which can be found in certain parts of India even today, one for instance, being amongst the Todas of the Nilgiri Hills where men dance around the funeral hut, during the last rites, and the Moharrum dances of Mymensingh, where they move to the tune of sad dirges, waving red scarves
The Savarās of Orissa have an interesting legend when the daughter of God died, she expressed a wish that there should be dancing at her funeral So God Himself became a dancer imitating the dance of the Peacock and so the dance was created upon the earth
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Folk Dance (Arunachal Pradesh)
The räkhatla dance of the Lashkers of the Lushai Hills is performed at the funeral of an outstandıng personality
In India where the climatic conditions are so extremely varied, the folkdances represent several centuries of social conditions, in all their diversity The characteristics and habits of the different people are reflected lastingly in their mode of dancing From the mild and gentle dancing of girls around a pole plaiting coloured threads in a fantastic dazzle of tints, to the wild and
| SR No. | 011117 |
| Book Title | Sacred Dance of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Mrinalini Sarabhai |
| Publisher | Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |
| Publication Year | 1979 |
| Total Pages | 48 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 8 MB |