A North Indian Classical Dance Form: Lucknow Kathak

Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement, Spring 2003 by Lalli, Gina

When in rapport with the dancer, the drummer plays the improvised rhythm pattern as if it were his own invention. This rapport assumes major importance and interest in the tatkar section at the end of the performance when both dancer and drummer improvise flights of rhythm together as one musician. The ideal Kathak dancer is likened to the poet: "In the limitless world of the poet's creation, the poet himself is the creator. It lives and moves and has its being as it pleases him" (Ramaswami-Sastri 1951: 109).

With so many unpredictable elements going into the creation of a performance, how can it be said to evoke a single, pervading mood (rasa)? In the very form of the dance and the structure of the dance suite, there are certain constant elements: between the dance figures the dance steps in time to the underlying beat of the music: the eyes gaze steadily ahead, the body is erect and poised, the face calm. All dance figures come out of and resolve into this composed form. In its small, subtle movements of the wrist and neck, pulsating to the beat of the feet, there is a feeling of "coming-to-rest" with the passage of time. In contrast, there is the temperamental, restless, syncopated beating against time of the dance figures themselves. Yet, whether engaged in dazzling movements or motionless in moments of repose, or during the stories, it is the dancer's eyes that sustain the dance.

The eyes seem to express a life independent of movement. They are often likened to a steady flame which is apparently still, ever renewing itself from within. It is this compelling gaze that makes all other changes of temperament, however striking, seem merely passing, like sparks quickly vanishing, as they come out of the flame. "Thus these transitory mental movements follow one another, threaded on the thread of the permanent mental state. They rise and set an infinity of times (Gnoli 1956: 92).

The dance movements themselves (sometimes predominantly straight lines in the arms and body) suggest the masculine, the heroic: the presence of Krishna. The bending, falling, curving, lyrical lines imply the feminine, acquiescing presence of Radha. The dance technique itself suggests constant meditation on the separation and union of masculine and feminine: the longing of Radha to join with Krishna. The eyes, although following the movements of the arms and hands, also gaze inward contemplating the union of the divine lovers. The eyes seem to remember the eternal beauty of Radha and Krishna. When the dancer focuses his or her mind on this, both dancer and audience may be transported to a plane of aesthetic beauty, where they all can taste the rasa of Lucknow Kathak.

Endnotes:

1 'Lucknow Kathak' and 'Kathak' are used interchangeably in this essay, always referring to the school of Kathak that originated in Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

2 See the website for an account by Birju Maharaj.

3 These syllables are pronounced "tah tay tay tut, ah tay tay tut, tah tay tay tut, ah tay tay tut, soom." The final syllable for the measure is the first beat of the next measure and denoted by the syllable 'sam' (soom) or 'dha' (dah). The tukra syllables are pronounced thus: "digidah digidee tay --, digidah digidee tay --, digidah digidee digidah digidee tut, tut, tut, tut, digidah digidee digidah digidee tut, tut, tut, tut, -- tut tut tay, -- tut tut tay, -tut tut dha."