Kathak (Northern India)
Kathak is the principal dance of northern India, and is widely practised in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, and even parts of western and eastern India today. It is believed to be connected with the narrative art of Kathakaras or story-tellers who have expounded the scriptures, the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, and puranic literature to the lay masses since ancient times. Expanding and refining its movement and vocabulary of expression, this art possibly transited to a courtly milieu in medieval India, and achieved its finest flowering under Mughal rule. Later, in the nineteenth century, the princely courts at Lucknow, Jaipur, Raigarh, and other places emerged as leading centres of Kathak dance. During the twentieth century, as training and practice of Kathak increasingly received the support of public institutions, choreographic work involving groups of dancers has claimed more space in Kathak practice. Kathak's thematic content today straddles various worlds, even though the lore of Krishna still has a special place in its repertoire. Kathak is characterized stylistically by its footwork and pirouettes, and is pre-eminently a dance of rhythm-play. A recital opens with an amad and moves on to that, Gat Nikas, paran and tatkar, segments that offer scope for dance to varying rhythms and tempos, and both abstract and expressive dance. The music of traditional Kathak consists of the Thumri and other lyrical song-forms, and the essential musical instruments are the Tabla, Pakhawaj, and Sarangi. The sitar and other plucked strings are also associated with Kathak performed today.
The Thumri is a popular genre of Hindustani music characterized by a lyricism that gives expression to various shades of romantic love. It acquired a special connection with Kathak dance in the court of Wajid Ali Shah at Lucknow in the nineteenth century. Typically, a Thumri has a short text of two to four lines which are repeated sometimes using a sthayi-antara form. The singer extracts and projects new shades of meaning from the reiteration of each line of text by vocal inflections and melody changes—a process known as bol banana. The Thumri is highly ornamented, employing melodic filigree and tiny turns of voice (murki) and shakes. It is usually set to a slow tala, with
occasional lively drum interludes called laggis. There are several different styles of singing thumri, the most prominent being the Punjabi, Purabi (of Lucknow), and Benaras styles.