History of Bollywood Dance

Bollywood

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Bollywood is a play on the term Hollywood and  most directly refers to the Hindi film industry centered in Bombay. As in Hollywood, Bollywood films started out as silent movies.  Eventually, Indian films transitioned to the formula of Hollywood musicals. This included characters randomly breaking out into song, special scenery, costumes, and high-energy dancing. Bollywood ended up taking the musical element and bringing it to a whole new level.  The point of early Bollywood films was to create an escape from the real world during Depression-era times into one that was lively and full of colorful, happy moments. The “unrealistic” music and dance sequences added to the effect: the dances were rarely part of the plot, the sets were intricate, the locations were exotic.  In India, musicals were never just another genre. They are essentially the sole type of movies produced, even to this day, all with a purpose to provide a sense of romanticism in times of tough realism.

Earlier films used classical Indian dancing such as bharatnatyam and kathak instead of the Bollywood dancing known around the world today.  Through the years, the dances began to evolve into larger groups still being influenced from folk dances. By the 1970s, choreographers mixed folk and traditional dance elements with the increasingly popular cabaret genre.  As popular dance forms changed through the decades, going from disco to hip hop to freestyle, Bollywood dance also evolved as the decades progressed. Dance numbers began to incorporate more elements of Western hip-hop, jazz, and Broadway dance numbers than traditional Indian dances. The music in the films also began to evolve with Western music.  Early Bollywood used slower mid-tempo songs while the Bollywood of today has Hindi lyrics mixed with Western elements like beat drops and fusion. Eventually, music from films were released ahead of the movies, and the dance sequences were released as music videos, very similarly to the American music industry.

Today, Bollywood dance is a global phenomenon.  It has become its own genre of dance, with dance studios popping up around the world aiming to teach people how to Bollywood dance, and people like American figure skaters incorporating Bollywood dance and music into their sets.  As the Indian diaspora ha snow reached global proportions, Bollywood dancing has been used at all sorts of functions from weddings to talent shows. Its introduction to collegiate campuses occurred within the past two decades, allowing students to participate in “filmi-fusion” dance.  This dance style is Bollywood in nature, but draws upon elements from all types of Indian dance including bharatnatyam, garba, and bhangra. The rise of these collegiate teams led to the formation of a national circuit with Bollywood America as the national championship. Teams compete at various competitions across the country to win bid points for a chance to compete at one of the most prestigious Indian dance competitions in North America.  Much like the Bollywood movies from which the teams draw dance inspiration, these performances also include a very Bollywood-like story, or theme, which revolves around very Western situations. The songs used by these teams come from a variety of popular Punjabi, Bollywood, and American songs. This, form of dance has become the genuine cultural expression of the Indian diaspora.

Bhangra

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The exact origins of bhangra dance are not entirely known.  Bhangra historically denoted a dance performed by Sikh and Muslim men in rural areas of Punjab in India and Pakistan.  Although it was known as this, the earliest records of the dance are not explicitly seen in the writings of Sikh Gurus from the 1500s to 1700s.  Various elements of current day traditional bhangra, as well as different sections of competitive style bhangra, were mentioned in these texts, such as jhummar and dhamal.  The first report of bhangra came in around the mid-1880s where it was described as a dance that was performed at weddings along with the previously mentioned jhummar, dhamaal, and sialkot.  The traditional bhangra that is seen today in India can be traced back to the early 1900s. It was performed in the Sialkot district of Punjab nightly until the harvest festival of Visakhi. It was carried out in a non-organized fashion:  mainly men danced in a circle formation that would grow larger or smaller depending on participation from the crowd with dance moves that involved bending knees, throwing hands up in the air with a relaxed elbow formation. Recitations of lines of poetry or verses by dancers broke up the dancing.  The only type of music used at the time was the dhol, a traditional, barrel drum.

Bhangra continued to flourish as this rural, folk dance form, eventually becoming the official dance of the state of Punjab by 1953.  What once never truly existed became an amalgamation of many different folk dances from the state of Punjab. During this time, bhangra was expected to show the true Punjabi spirit, which the dancers hoped would convey nationalism for India as well.  Dancers were expected to be as happy as possible while performing this energetic routine. Some moves depict the daily chores of a farmer in rural Punjab, such as hoeing or cutting wheat, while others depict the actual fields themselves. Bhangra really embodied teamwork and coordination, another aspect heavily embedded in its rural roots.  Bhangra in India today is still performed in a similar manner, relying very much on its ties. Collegiate teams began to arise in India, and this helped streamline the process of creating a more uniformed style of bhangra.

Today, bhangra is still heavily practiced in India and the Indian diaspora.  In India, bhangra is performed at various celebrations and weddings while also being modernized by inclusion of Western elements into performances and bhangra music.  In Western countries, bhangra has influenced colleges and communities alike by inspiring the creation of competitive dance teams. The bhangra circuit in North America allows Indian-American youth to pursue much the same goal as the original bhangra dancers: putting on a lively, energetic performance while also demonstrating the true nature of Punjabis.  The different folk styles that came together to create the form of bhangra from before, such as jhummar and dhamal, are different competitive segments each team must include in their sets. Teams are smiling constantly during the performance to exude the happy, care-free energy of rural bhangra dancers. Each performance incorporates Western elements as well, such as popular American songs into mixes or a slight variation on traditional moves.