I was drawn to Chhau by many factors: the inspiration of my late guru Krushna Chandra Naik, Chhau’s socio-mythic background and the lyrical strength of the movement technique. The expansive use of ...

Plastic chairs and string cots are arranged neatly in a semi-circle under a canopy of trees at Beguna Diha, a village on the outskirts of Mayurbhanj in Odisha. You can hear the sound of practising ...

The Chhau dance of Eastern India — Orissa, Jharkhand, and West Bengal – is a blend of martial traditions, temple rituals, and folk and popular performance of this region. Episodes from the epics ...

In a grainy black-and-white film snippet from a royal event in Calcutta in January 1912, a big group of martial dancers swamp the screen for about 30 flickering seconds. Swords and shields in hand, ...

There’s a proverb in the Santhali language that goes: ‘When we talk, we sing; when we walk, we dance.’ It suggests how dancing and singing are intrinsic to the Santhal community, which makes up most ...