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History And Description Of Bihu Dance
History
- Bihu dance is a folk dance of the Indian state of Assam related to the Bihu festival. This joyous dance is performed by both young men and women and is characterized by agile dance moves and rapid hand movements. The dancers wear traditional colorful Assamese costumes.
- Although the origin of the Bihu dance is unknown, the first official evidence of it is found when the Ahom king Rudra Singh invited Bihu dancers to perform it in the Ranghar fields on the occasion of Rongali Bihu around 1694.
Description
- Bihu is a group dance in which men and women dance together but maintain separate gender roles. Women generally strictly follow the line or circle formation.
- Male dancers and musicians are the first to enter the dance area and they maintain their line and make synchronized figures.
- When the female dancers enter later, the male dancers break their lines to join the female dancers, who maintain their formations and dance sequence.
- The dance is generally characterized by fixed postures, rhythmic movements of the hips, arms, wrists, twirls, bends and bends of the knees but does not involve jumps. The dance postures of men and women are similar with very slight but subtle differences.
- This dance is performed with traditional Bihu music. The most important musicians are the dholakiyas (dhulias), who play a double-sided drum called the dhol, which is suspended from the neck and played with a stick and palm.
- Before entering the dance area, the drummers play a short, fast tempo. The siu changes and the drummers usually line up to enter the dance area.
- The mohor zingor pepa is usually played by the soloist at the beginning to set the painful motif and set the mood for the dance.
- The male dancers then enter the dance area in a formation and perform, accompanied by singing, in which all participate.
- Some of the other instruments used in this dance are tala -a manjira, gogona -a type of flute and bamboo instruments, toka -bamboo tuntuna, and zutuli -clay whistle. The songs that accompany the dance have been passed down through generations.
- The performance itself can be long, enlivened by rapid changes in tempo, tempo, and sudden changes in posture, and the dancers and musicians are given little opportunity to show off their virtuosity.
Types of Bihu Dance
- There are many variants of this dance among North East Indian groups, for example “Deori Bihu dance”, “Maising Bihu dance”, etc. However, the basic goal of the dance remains the same: to express the desire to feel both pain and pleasure.
