Visit to Rajasthan is incomplete without enjoying the spectacular patronage of Rajasthani cultural and heritage glimpses i.e. Rajasthan Dance and Culture, which have made their recognition in whole world.
Dance and music are the essential parts of the culture and tradition of Rajasthan. These cultural events will purify your mind and soul with a sense of higher consciousness. The performers are dressed with their traditional colourful attire and offer exotic flavor to the listeners and spectators.
Folk music is a vital part of Rajasthani culture. Songs usually tell the legendary battles of Rajputs. Folk songs are commonly ballads which relate heroic deeds, love stories, and religious or devotional songs known as bhajans and banis and often accompanied by musical instruments like dholak, sitar, sarangi etc.
The various traditional dances that have also become the identity of Rajasthan are introduced below:
Kalbelia Dance: This dance is generally performed by the women of Kalbelia society. Kalbelia society is mainly involved in the profession of snake catching and removing the poison of snake bite. As the dance is performed by snake catching community the dance movements also resemble as the snake moves and so are their clothes.
The women wear black long skirt and the dance is performed on the beats of pungi, duffli, and ‘bean’ which is a wooden instrument which is generally used by serpents for catching the snakes. While playing the instruments two three women in a group sing traditional songs in hoarse voice where as others join for dance.
The most eye catching scene of this dance is to see dancers performing perfectly on the beats of instruments.
Ghoomar:
This dance is generally the hereditary dance of Bhil community. This dance is basically performed on special occasions. Constituted from the word ‘ghooma’ the dancing steps are simple to perform, where all women move gently in circles in a clockwise and anticlockwise manner giving their ghagra’s a curving fold.
The Kucchi Ghodi: As the name is representative of hindi version of Horse i.e. ‘Ghoda’. The spectacular feature of this dance is the group of men dressed colourfully as horses. It is also known as horse dance or dances of dummy horse. It is mostly performed during Holi.
Gair Goomar: This dance is the combination of mental and physical patience. Here the dancers put the brass pitchers filled with brightly lit lamps on their heads and then make flexible dance moments that viewers have no option except biting their nails.
Fire Dance: This dance is generally performed by the Jansathi community of Bikaner an Churu districts of Rajasthan. The Jansathis are recognized for their bravery and this is also illustrated in their traditional cultural dance. This dance is performed on a huge ground where wood and charcoal are fired and then huge number of boys and man jump into the fire and dance on the drum beats.
Drum Dance: This dance is generally performed by the artists of Jalore district. Here five man hold huge drums in their neck and some with heavy music instruments in their neck beat the drums and a dance holding a sword in his mouth dances immensely revolving around three painted sticks.
Terah Taal ( Thirteen Beats ): This dance requires the expertise by the performing person and therefore is performed by the trained professionals. The important feature of this dance is that the dancer ties up the metallic discs, known as ‘manjeera’s’ in local language at thirteen different places in body and then starts dancing by playing music from thirteen manjeera’s tied on his body.