Smashing Patriarchy: The Women Behind India’s Chhau dance
Smashing Patriarchy: The Women Behind India’s Chhau dance
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KOLKATA The year was 1979. Ileana Citaristi, an Italy-born Odissi exponent, had just arrived in India. She was visiting Delhi as her Odissi (a classical Indian dance form) trainer, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, was conducting workshops in the Indian capital.
One day, she walked into a room at Delhi’s Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra (an Indian cultural institution) and was mesmerized by an Indian woman dancing beautifully.
“An old man was also there, playing the drum,” remembers Citaristi, “I didn’t know which dance form she was practising. The performers then explained to me that she was performing Chhau from Odisha.”
Updated:
January 03, 2021 10:21 IST
Chhau dance, with its martial origin and strenuous body movements, was once a strictly-guarded male domain. Now several all-women troupes are all the rage
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Chhau is her life and identity, says 23 -year- old Mousumi Chowdhury, who set up the first all women Chhau troupe in Purulia, West Bengal, in 2010 | Photo Credit:
Banglanatak dot com
Chhau dance, with its martial origin and strenuous body movements, was once a strictly-guarded male domain. Now several all-women troupes are all the rage
There’s a proverb in the Santhali language that goes: ‘When we talk, we sing; when we walk, we dance.’ It suggests how dancing and singing are intrinsic to the Santhal community, which makes up most of West Bengal’s Purulia district. One of the poorest districts of Bengal, Purulia has been ravaged by Maoist insurgency, but even in the worst of times, it has clung steadfastly to its lively tradition of Chhau dance, which, with i
Faded Glory: A photographer s depiction of the Chhau, Ghora naach, through nostalgia and an archivist lens In Faded Glory, isolated artists can be seen casually lounging in their regal costumes amid the village landscape perhaps indicating that they are as integral to Purulia’s natural setting as are the trees, the river and the hills. Pritha Bhattacharya December 13, 2020 11:47:08 IST
The
Chhau naach, popular in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha, is often described as a semi-classical dance form with martial, tribal and folk origins. Such an insipid description, however, fails to capture the vitality, rhythm and artistic diversity that marks the