Popular Folk Dances of India

Category :- All India Travel Tourism > Culture > Dance > Folk

Dandaria dance
Andhra Pradesh is the home of many tribes like Banjaras, Chenchus and Mathuris. All have dances of their own. Some dance around a fire, some have many magical and trance dances. The agriculturists amongst them dance during certain festivals.
On the occasion of festivals, dancers, dressed in their best, exchange visits with other villages and are received as honoured guests wherever they go. The youth, followed by musicians, come first, while the old men are the last to arrive. Then they all dance together, holding sticks which they strike against one another to keep time. These are the Dandaria dance.

Bhanjara
The Bhanjara-s or Lambida-s are gypsy tribes who live in Hyderabad. Their vivid colour sense expresses itself in the picture costumes of the women with wide flaring skirts and bright blouses embroidered and studded with mirrors.

Their dances are associated with house-hold tasks, cultivation and sowing, planting and harvesting. Forming a great circle, the women go round and round, clapping and making gestures that indicate their agrarian livelihoods.

There are nearly twentyfive groups of tribes which inhabit different parts of Tamil Nadu. Early tribesmen include Todas and Kurumbas. Their rites and rituals, seasonal festivals revolve around agricultural functions. Devotional singing and dancing is dedicated to the deity.

  Kummi
The womenfolk of Tamil Nadu have three closely related dances, which can be performed at any time but are seen at their best during festivities. The simplest of these is the Kummi, in which the dancers gather in a circle and clap their hands as they dance. As an extension to this is the Kolattam, where instead of clapping, the participants hold small wooden rods in their hands and strike these in rhythm as they dance.

As part of the Muslim observence of Moharram, men disguised as tigers go about in the streets dancing what is known as Puli Vesham, Tiger Disguise.

Kargam is the most common form of folk dance in Tamil Nadu. Originally, it was dedicated to Mariamman, the goddess of health and rain. The Kargam dance is essentially part of a ritual and is performed by men balancing pots filled with uncooked rice, surrounded by a tall conical bamboo frame covered with flowers. The musical accompaniment comprises a drum and a long pipe.