The students aspiring to learn traditional dances are being trained at in the best skills at the Jawahar Bal Bhavan. Other than several Indian traditional dances, a workshop on Chhau dance is being organized here from Wednesday.
The students aspiring to learn dance not only as a hobby but also to brush up their skills in dance movements are a part of the chhau dance workshop. As Chhau is a different form of dance, the students are being taught from the very basics of the dance form. As many as 50 children of the State Capital have participated in the workshop.
Before beginning the actual dance steps it is needed to learn about the origin of the dance. So an information session explaining about the dance and its importance was held on the first day of the workshop. Specialists in Chhau dance are conducting the workshop.
The chhau dance is all about enactment with dance moves. Dressed in heavy masks and beautifully adorned costumes, the artists display the mythological stories on streets. Basically, the themes for chhau dance include local legends, folklore and episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata and other abstract themes.
Basically, this dance is performed by male dancers from families of traditional artists or from local communities and is performed at night in an open space, called akhada or asar, to traditional and folk music, played on the reed pipes mohuri and shehnai. A variety of drums accompany the music ensemble including the dhol, dhumsa and kharka or chad-chadi, informed Sanghmitra the in-charge of dance at Jawahar Bl Bhavan.