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| General Information |
Chhau is a martial dance originating in eastern India. Chhau dance incorporates martial arts, athletics, acrobatics and folklore dance (Bhattacharya 2019). The powerful movements and kicks reveal the dance’s martial origin. Hunting movements, animal movements and movements mimicked household chores are also included (UNESCO, s.d.). There are three types of chhau dance. These subgenres are mayurbhanj, purulia chhau and seraikela chhau. For the latter two, practitioners wear masks (Miettinen, s.d.). Costumes are very colourful and the dances are accompanied by music.Chhau dance is inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. |
| History/Development |
At the end of the 20th century this art with a very long history became known both inside and outside of the country. Chhau dance is often part of festivals. Contemporary choreographies also draw from these ancient dance traditions (Miettinen, s.d.). Also Bollywood has taken inspiration from traditional Indian dances for a long time (The Indian Sun 2018). |
Transmission
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Traditionally only male dancers participate (Miettinen, n.d.; Bhattacharya 2019). Recently however there has been a change. Mousumi Chowdhury testifies how she is the first female chhau dancer in her community and has inspired other young girls to follow in her footsteps (Chowdhury 2019). “Feminism in India” also reports a change regarding the inclusion of women in the tradition (Bhattacharya 2019). |
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| References |
- Bhattacharya, R. (2019). “Chhau Nritya—Breaking The Glass Ceilings Within Dance Forms”, Feminism in India
https://feminisminindia.com/2019/08/22/chhau-nritya-breaking-glass-ceilings-dance-forms
- Miettinen, J.O. (s.d.). “Chhau, Dances of Eastern India Derived from Martial Arts”, Asian Traditional Theatre & Dance.
https://disco.teak.fi/asia/chhau-dances-of-eastern-india-derived-from-martial-arts
- UNESCO. (s.d.). “Chhau dance”
https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/chhau-dance-00337
- Chowdhury, M. (2019). “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: One Somersault at a Time”, ICH Courier, vol 41.
https://ichcourier.unesco-ichcap.org/article/breaking-the-glass-ceiling-one-somersault-at-a-time
- The Indian Sun. (2018). “Preserving Chhau… and how!”, The Indian Sun.
https://www.theindiansun.com.au/2018/06/12/preserving-chhau-and-how/ | | |
