Kathak- Techniques

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Since the Britishers abandoned the profession of dancing, people started to tutor at home and from there the concept of ‘gharanas’ emerged. The word 'Gharanas' derives from the word 'ghar,' which means house. Over the years, Kathak survived and evolved as an oral tradition and was spread by performances from generation to generation, or guru to shishya. This traditional way of imbibing knowledge through the shishya parampara of the guru allowed this art form to be maintained. Kathak grew into three major schools of thought: the styles of Lucknow, Jaipur and Banaras. Kept within a well-defined framework of artistic ideals, these gharanas exhibited influential characteristics that made them distinctive.

Jaipur concentrated mainly on warrior activities, including the introduction of Parans and Kaviths. Any of the specialties of the Jaipur gharana are aggressive motions, sharp foot work and spins. Delicate revolutions, history, romance, ethos, and sringar were addressed by Lucknow gharana. A few Picluriarites of this gharana are gazals, amass, gabs. The Banaras gharana that originated from the banks of the Ganga River concentrated more on the religious aspects. The specialisation of the Banaras gharana was tumris based on 'bol banana' also, the Bhajans.

Kathak, like miniature drawing, is characteristically two-dimensional. It conceives of space only in straight lines and does not aim to give the relief in Indian sculpture a three-dimensional effect so typical of it. There is just front-back handling of the room in the dance. It is around a central vertical median from which no shifts or deflections take place, except though pirouettes are performed. As a straight line, the human form is thought of and there are very few variations from the vertical median or the Brahmasutra. The weight of the body is divided evenly in the initial positions of the dance and the legs are not flexed. In this position, the feet are invariably in the sama pada, the first sequences are also performed in the same position. Flat-foot dance is not as necessary in any other style as in Kathak. The minute foot-work that Kathak demands is definitely one of the reasons for this. Only by a careful balancing of weight on the flat foot will the intricate foot-work be executed precisely.

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The alphabet and language of dance gestures of the Kathak dancer is not based on the concept of either foot touches or leg extensions, as in Bharatanatyam, or knee flexions. This dance style is also known for torso movements, but the torso is neither conceived as a single unit as in Bharatanatyam, nor is it divided into two units, like in Manipuri, the chest and the waist. Instead, only the shoulder line, which appears to be a manipulation of the upper torso, changes its angle. This treatment gives its peculiar fluidity and some of its characteristic torso postures to the dance style. In the execution of movements known as the Kasak masak, the shoulder line and its deflection (with one shoulder depressed and the other raised) are used at their best. The movements of the arms are definite, but they do not make any single geometrical pattern. The dance style is characterised by its jumps and pirouettes. These are the utplavanas and bhramaris, in the Natyasastra or Abhinaya Darpana terminology. In no other form of dancing, both feet are raised together like they are in Kathak in a basic hop.

There are few facial movements, but considerable focus is put on eyebrow movements. A signature aspect of this dance style is the use of the eyebrows for the lasyanga. Kathak shares a great deal with Bharatanatyam in the gestures of the jaw. In these two dance styles, the horizontal, side-to-side movement of the body, defined as the sundari neck movement in the Abhinaya Darpana, is used most often.

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Sources- Kapila Vatsyayan. INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE. Publications Division. Kindle Edition. NATYASHASTRA by Bharata Muni, translated into english by Manomohan Ghosh