Kathak an Indian classical dance form

 There are 7 types of dance form in our Indian classical dance among them Kathak is one of the major forms.

ORIGIN:

The word 'Kathak' came from the word 'kathakars' means story teller. The word 'katha' is taken from the Vedic Sanskrit. Artists can convey stories through dance and music. Kathak evolved during the Bhakti movement by incorporating the childhood story of hindu god 'Krishna'.

Gharanas: 

1.  Benaras
2. Jaipur
3. Lucknow 

History:

    According to Mary Snodgrass, the Kathak tradition of India is a tradition from to 400 BCE.The earliest act of kathak was  Natya Sastra,attributed to sage Bharata, and its first compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE,which was completed but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE.

Description:

 

Kathak was performed in different type of era like Bhakti Movement Era,Mughal Era, British Raj Era

and post colonial era. The concept of gharana is implemented in Modern kathak. Three main part of this dance is :

Expressive dance

Pure recital dance

The invocation.

The invocation is like Guru Pranam. There is hindu godess posture as well as salami posture.Pure Recital dance is Nritta while Expressive dance is Nritya.

Kathak dance can be performed solo duo or in a group.It has various types of mudras and postures. This is a softand smooth dance form. The cosmetics between Hindu and Muslims dancers varied a little bit. Through the expressive dancing one can act a beautiful drama through the dance. One can express feelings and so on. Nritta is pure classical form with the bol like tukra, tora, amod and etc. Ghungru is must when you are perforfing Nritta. The starting will be with that and then gradually speed will be increased and more energitic. After that bol will be performed and it'll be ended with the foot works like tatkars,lari ,tehai etc.