Mumbai audiences have the rare chance to watch Chhau, a martial arts-inspired dance drama from Eastern India, at the ongoing Keli Festival

Mumbai audiences have the rare chance to watch Chhau, a martial arts-inspired dance drama from Eastern India, at the ongoing Keli Festival

If you manage to grab a seat to catch a performance of Chhau at the ongoing Keli Festival, you should consider yourself lucky. Thursday evening's performance was about to be cancelled when the Purulia dance troupe didn't make it in time to catch a train from Tata Nagar station in Jharkhand, thanks to a traffic jam.

A scene from Abhimanyu Vadh performed by the dancers of Purulia
Chhau Dance Academy. Pics/Bipin Kokate
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"I had to beg the station master for tickets on another train," says Manoranjan Sahu, coordinator. For Sahu, it was a matter of prestige since this is the first time that members of three Chhau troupes are performing in Mumbai.

So, after high drama, when the troupe opened the festival on Thursday evening with a magical acrobatic performance, you couldn't tell that the dancers hadn't slept a wink in the last 48 hours.u00a0

The Keli Festival is dedicated to Chhau, a martial arts-inspired dance native to Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal, and brings dancers from three major styles ofu00a0 Seraikella, Purulia and Mayurbhanj to the city.

"Performed mainly by local farmers, this dance originated in Serikella and later spread to Mayurbhanj and Purulia," says Sahu. The story goes that the King of Mayurbhanj demanded that his people be taught the dance form. So, a guru was summoned from Seraikella. A guru tweaked the dance form and decided not to include masks.
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So, while Purulia Chhau uses masks that are a lot bigger than the ones used in Seraikella Chhau, Mayurbhanj discards them completely. Purulia is also said to be a lot more athletic than traditional. Though initially performed in army cantonments and villages, Chhau that received a classical dance status recently, has received international attention.

Tonight's hour-and-a-half long performance includes 8-10 minute sequences based on Chandrabhaga, Hara-Parvati, Radha-Krishna and Hansa, all from the Seraikella style. "Seraikella Chhau is the most traditional of the three. For every sequence and every character, we use a different costume.

The costume has its significance in relation to the dance piece being performed, and can't be repeated in two separate presentations," explains Sahu. The masks used are elaborate, each expressing a different emotion. Since they leave little opportunity for the dancer to breathe, each sequence rarely lasts more than 10 minutes. The highlight of this evening is the sequence that features the 55 year-old head of the Trinetra Chhau Dance Centre, Gopal Krishna Dubey.

Sahu extends an open invitation to all to come down to Seraikella during the month of Chaitra (April), when the dance is performed right through four consecutive nights. "It is a dance of fertility, unlike other dance forms that are connected t o harvest," says festival director Ramachandran K. Sahu claims this is just a teaser; the real thrill is to watch the performance under a starlit sky with thousands of villagers giving you company.

On: Today, 7 pm at Prithvi Theatre, Janki Kutir, Juhu Church Road, Vile Parle (W). Free seating on first-come-first-served basis. Call 26149546 for details