Popular Folk Dances of India

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

Ghode Modni
The pocket of Goa, for over four centuries a Portuguese colony, still observes an annual Carnival, European fashion. For three days the people surrender themselves to a mood of exceptional gaiety. Apart from pageants and spectacles, the boys and girls indulge in dances of their own. Ghode Modni is a dummy horse presentation, where the dancers, attired gorgeously and armed with swords, recapitulate, through step and movement, the valour and deeds of the Goan warriors of old.

Dindi and Kala
In Maharashtra there are religious devotional dances called Dindi and Kala. These dances describe the playful attitude of Lord Krishna. Dindi is a small drum like a 'Tamate'. The musicians in the centre comprising a 'Mridangam' player and a vocalist give the dancers the necessary musical background. Around this music, the assembled men and women dance joyfully. This is usually danced on the Ekadashi day in the month of Kartik.

Tarpha Nach or Pavri Nach
In the hilly regions of the north-west, the Kokna tribals dance to the accompaniment of the tarpha or pavri, a wind instrument made of dried gourd. Because of this, the dance is known as Tarpha Nach or Pavri Nach. The performers hold each other by the waist and dance in close formation. Men also dance separately, and this includes feats of skill, like forming a pyramid or rapidly revolving a dancer round a stout pole.

Garba
the leading dance of women in Gujarat, is associated withthe fertility cult. For the nine nights of Navaratri, an autumn festival,women come out into the open and with perforated earthen pots holding lighted lambs poised on the head sing, clap and dance a simple, circular dance, in honour of the goddess Amba.

At times men too dance, by singing and clapping,and the dance is known as Garbi. Traditionally the Garba is intended to be danced only at night and as a votive offering. In an evolved version,the dance can be performed for its own sake and at any time.

Among the functional dances in India, the Tippani is one. It is danced by women labourers in parts of Saurashtra, to relieve tedium, as part of the beating of the floor with wooden mallets, in the construction of a house.