India is the land which is proud of being what it is today. Creative and so beautiful, the country offers everything at its best. Dance is something that is there in the veins of the country. Sanatan Culture or Hindu civilization as it is called is “the oldest of all living civilizations on Earth”. Dances of India vary according to the culture, state and religions. The origin of the dances in India is more than 8000 years old.

Dance is the form of art, wherein the body is used as a medium of communication. Indian dance styles have played an influential role in many others realms of art. This includes poetry, sculpture, architecture, literature, music and theatre. There are a numbers of dance forms that the country offers. You may have heard of the 8 styles of Indian classical dance. These 8 styles are vary popular not only in India but in other parts of the world also. The Natya Shastra is the foundational treatise for classical dances of India. The Natya Shastra states four traditions or pravrittis as call in sanskrit of ancient dance in vogue when it was composed. They are the following..

Avanti (Ujjain, central)

Dakshinatya (south)

Panchali (north, west)

Odra-Magadhi (east)

Every region has some or the other form of dance speciality. Cuisines are special and vary from place to place. People are humble in every part of the country and the dance and music forms again vary from place to place. This beauty of the nation is something that people from all over the world appreciate. At almost all the places you travel you will see some or the other speciality native to the place. Watching a dance performance native to the place is one of the most amazing experiences one can have.

There are so many folk dance forms in India owing to its huge geography and amazing variety. The folk dances are not as complex as the classical dance forms. They are very beautiful, because of the essence of rawness in them. For instance, the Bihu dance of Assam, the Dol-Cholom of Manipur, Hikal of Himachal Pradesh or Chhau of Bengal, each of these folk dances act as a reflection of the deep-rooted traditions of that particular local culture. One of the most famous dance in north India, Bhangra, is a very lively dance form of the state of Punjab. There are various other dance forms in the genre of folk Indian dance forms.

The classical dance forms of the country are mostly related to the spiritual world. For instance, Kathakali, it literally means story-play and is an elaborate dance depicting the victory of truth over falsehood. A Striking feature of Kathakali is the use of elaborate make-up and colourful costumes. This is to emphasise that the characters are super beings from another world, and their make-up is easily recognizable to the trained eye as godlike, heroic, or demonic. Bharatnatyam dance has been handed down through the centuries by dance teachers (or gurus) called nattuwanars and the temple dancers called devadasis. Other states in India have their own distinct dance forms. The diversity of the country is something that you would love.