kathak

Dance from N. India and Pakistan. Its name comes from katha meaning story and it originates from the kathaks or storytellers who used to give religious and moral instruction in narrative form. Music, mime, and dance became important features of their technique and when this mingled with the decorative dance styles introduced by the Moguls (14th-17th centuries) kathak became a complex movement form capable of dealing with the themes of Hindu myth as well as more human stories. Subsequently its narrative content became highly refined (that which remained dealing primarily with the stories of Radha and Krishna) and dancers focused on music and rhythm. Kathak performers are noted for their virtuosic fast turns and stamping footwork, whose rhythms, exaggerated by ankle bells, develop into highly complex metrical sequences. Today's dancers may be pure classicists or, like British-based Nahid Siddiqui, develop the language into a more contemporary style of dance.