Dance of India: Its Origin and History

Performing arts have been a part of Indian cultural history since ancient times. Wall paintings, excavated artifacts, and memoirs have vividly mentioned various dance forms. As per texts, the first dance drama was performed in the court of Lord Indra. Natyashastra documents all the performing arts extensively and as per the text the art forms can be characterized in three categories – Nritta (movement of the body to music without any expressions or abhinaya), Nritya (confluence of nritta and abhinaya), and Natya (use of dialogues along with music and dance). The dance forms are mainly categorized as – Classical dance or Folk dance. However, irrespective of the category, the majority of dance forms are devotional and connected to religion in some ways. A few of the many dance forms performed in India are: Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Manipur, Mohiniattam, Chhau, Kuchipudi etc