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King Jayapida (9th c AD) married twice and one of his
wives was Kamala, a comely dancing girl whom he had met when he was once
traveling in disguise. In the first half of the 10th century, another
king of Kashmir, Chakravarman, also married a dancing girl Hamsi, after
being enchanted by a performance of hers and he made her his principal
queen. (‘Traditions of Indian classical dance,’ Mohan Khokar, chapter ‘Down the centuries’) |
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The 1978 Asian Dance Festival-Hawaii, organized by the
American Dance Guild and Conference on Research in Dance, marked both my
first Chhau performance in America and the first introduction of Chhau
to the U.S.A. I also performed a Manipur Raas as well as the Mayurbhanj
Chhau Nataraj. The expansive use of the whole body as the
expressive medium, even though interpreting an Indian theme, seemed so
close to modern dance that a fine American dance scholar conversant with
Bharatanatyam refused to believe it was authentic as she had never seen
Chhau before even in India. I was extremely lucky that two senior dance
scholars, Mohan Khokar and Sunil Kothari, were both there and fully
assured that what I presented was indeed a traditional form and that I
was performing properly. (‘The aerobics in Chhau dance’ by Sharon Lowen, The Asian Age, Feb 21, 2017) |
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