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Chhau Dance

When you would analyze the dance form in the tribal areas like West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa, you will certainly be fascinated by the Chhau Dance. The word Chhau is described as ‘Shadow’, ‘Disguise’ and ‘Image’. These meanings and specifics are derived by the special things that are used in dancing. For instance, you can see the use of masks that attribute to its meaning of disguise. The dance is basically a martial dance and it contains a lot of flexible movements, for this particular reason, it is only suitable for men.

Also, there was a time, when this dance form was performed on a festival that is called the “Sun Festival”. However, now, it is adopted for many other occasions and festival, as well. Herein, you can view the religious aspect as the basic thing on which they perform is the episodes of Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The whole of the dancing is based on music and Dhol, Dhumba, Nagara, Dhansa are the important ways to achieve the task. The dance can also be further classified in the different subtypes which are developed pertaining to the origin they are done in.

Seraikella Chau is the form that you can witness in the district of Jharkhand and it is named after the place Seraikella. Here, you can see an extensive use of masks while dancing along with some seriously difficult and flexible steps.

Purulia Chau is from the West Bengal and it is based on idea that the good will come out to be a victorious in its battle with evil. Different sorts of masks are also used in here, which actually is the specialty of the region.

Mayurbhanj Chau is the more advanced form and done in the region of Orissa. The basic thing that you can experience is that there are no masks to go with the dance.
As a whole, this dance form is certainly a complicated one with the embellishment of Folk and classical aspect.