dance forms of India

The classical dance forms of India and Pakistan evolved as vehicles for portraying the characters and stories of the gods. Shiva is known as the Lord of the Dance and according to Hindu legend created heaven and earth when he performed his Dance of Creation. Bharata's treatise the Natya Shastra was written c.200 BC-AD 300 and its guidelines on dance, drama, and music acquired the status of holy writ. The main dance forms are bharata natyam from S. India, kathakali from SW India, manipuri from NE India, kuchipudi from SE India, odissi from Orissa, and kathak from N. India. While these ancient dance forms were frequently degraded under colonial rule, the 20th century saw a major renaissance of standards in both teaching and performance. Pavlova learnt Indian dance from Uday Shankar and performed the duet Radha and Krishna with him in 1923, but the most influential performer in the West for many years was Ram Gopal. On his many tours from the late 1930s through to the 1970s he initiated a new international audience to the aesthetic of Indian dance and also performed with Markova. Today classical Indian dance is taught and performed in many countries and a new generation of artists has begun to evolve contemporary versions of classical forms. British-based Shobana Jeyasingh has brought aspects of Western modern dance to her choreographic idiom while Chandralekha has turned to martial arts and yoga for new influences. Among younger choreographers based in India there is wide experimentation with new music, a marked modernization of costume and stage manner, and a tendency to work with ensembles rather than soloists.