NRIT KATHA

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HISTORY OF KATHAK

Art can change you from inside out. The best thing is to enjoy the understanding of art rather that actually going somewhere.
Kathak is an Indian classical dance form. India has eight classical dance forms.Kathak is the only dance form that comes from northern parts of India.
The word Kathak comes from Katha. Katha means story. The person who tells story is a story teller. A storyteller in our language is called Kathak. Kathak is the amalgamation of three forms of art.The music ,the dance and the drama. When the three merges Kathak is formed. The history of Kathak or evolution of Kathak is very interesting. Kathak was a folk dance.Now the Kathakas or the story teller used to roam from one village to another telling the stories of whatever they have seen .In this way they used to pass on the information's from one segment of the society to another.The instruments were attached to their body in a bag like the tabla the sarengee or whatever percussions they had.
They were successful in this form of telling stories because they were folk forms. Then the pandits used to invite them within the boundaries of the temple to narrate stories.Here the contents or context of the stories were changed .They were given the books of Puranas, the Vedas the Mahabharatas and Ramayanas from where they used to tell stories of Gods and Goddesses. Stories were based more on mythologies. This way the temple dance was introduced in Kathak.
This was the second stage of Kathak. Once the Mughals came they invited the Kathakas within in Mughal court. Then the philosophy changed, contents changed ,history and the literature changed. They emphasized more on entertainment rather than spiritualism.There was a great change in fashion, the clothing, the music andthe instruments.Even sometimes the language also changed.Urdu was introduced.The technique of dance form also changed in order to emphasis on entertainments. After that the British came. During the British rule dancing was forbidden. Hence those dancers who developed themselves in the Mughal court could not dance anymore. No dancing means no earnings. Nothing was preserved or recorded. The heritage, the stylisation the concept the evolution of the process was encompasses.These nach girls played a very important role to preserve this dance form within their family. The concept of Gharanas was introduced. Gharana means Ghar or home. They started teaching their own children or cousins. Concept of local gharana were introduced. There are three Gharanas. The Jaipur, Lucknow and the Banaras Gharana.The Jaipur Gharana came from the northern frontiers of India and the dance form was aggressive.
Their dance form was more of warrior movements.Parans and Kavits were introduced. More of footwork and spins were there. The Lucknow gharana was more of romance, delicate movements .ethos and shringar. The Banaras gharana were more of spirituality aspects . The Thumries based on Bol banana was . The three Gharanas though not isolated but they have their own styles and build their own repertoire and passed on through generations through Guru Shirsha parampara . Post independence the leaders of India realised the spirituality and the legacy needed to be nurtured. So the invited the Gurus to come out and teach the younger generation to pass the information and the knowledge which they have achieved through generations with freedom.. Sangeet Natya Academy and many other institutions have been built established and is flourishing even today .It's good tobe living in a country like India where dance is practiced. preserved and propagated.