My name is Rhea Bhalakia and I have been studying the Indian classical dance form called Kathak. This website is to immerse and educate you into my artform to get a deeper understanding of my dance.
Kathak is a northern Indian classical dance and it comes from the word Katha meaning story. This artform was made for women to perform in courts for the kings and tell stories. This eventually evolved and now it is not only telling stories, but also a math, philosophy, vocal, and music class. The dancer is required to know how steps fit into the 16 beat cycle and how to sing the 16 beats while dancing. We learn the lineage of our artform and we honor those who come before us when we walk into the dance room and bow to acknowledge those who came before us, ourselves, and the room. We start with a prayer to acknowlege all of this as well. It is more than a dance class. It teaches us, Kathakas, life lessons not only the steps to choreography.
This is a story about Lord Indra who is the god of the deities. He is known to control the weather and he takes his bow and arrow to shoot a cloud and make it pour on a village because they were praying to Lord Krishna. Through dance we convey these stories to the audience and showcase our culture. We show the masculine and femine characters differently through the contrast of shard and subtle movements. Indra is about power and we show him being arrogant with stronger footwork. (I am second to the right)
This clip shows chhakkars which are turns that we train and we spin on our heels. These require focus and stamina. These turns may be pretty, but training to get to this level is extremely hard. It requires dedication to practice. Chhakkars are the fast upbeat moves that contrast with our soft footwork.
This clip showcases the basic footwork of Kathak, one of the first things a dancer learns. It consists of eight slaps of the feet in the order right, left, right, left, left, right, left, right. We fit these 8 steps into a 16 beat cycle called teental. This requires the dancer to use math to figure out how many steps of the feet fit into one of the beats. As each speed increases the number of steps per beat does too. 1 set of tatkar is 8 steps and the speed is single. Double is 2 sets and a step per beat which is 16 steps in the cycle. The hardest are the odd speeds and an example is 1.5 steps per beat.
This is another story about Lord Krishna and Radha. This clip shows Radha (me) doing her chores and filling up a pot of water. Krishna and Radha have this playful friendship and he’s known to be mischievous and play pranks on everyone in the village. Both these characters have a flirtatious banter and that is showcased here. Krishna grabs a rock and hits Radhas pot and the water falls all over her. They end up making up and the dance continues in harmony. The dancer embodies the character and immerses themselves in the story.
