Seattle Center

Center House Stage

305 Harrison Street

Seattle

October 13, 2007, Saturday 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM

Admissions: FREE

GIDDHA & BHANGRA

Director/choreographer Shub-Chintan K. Gill and public relations administrator Roop K. Sandhu conduct the Rhythms of India dance school. The school has been in existence since 2002 with studios in Bellevue, Kent, Kirkland and Seattle. They also hold classes with the Experimental College of the University of Washington. They have students ranging from the ages of 4 to 65 learning the folk dances of Punjab and the modern dances of Bollywood. They will be presenting a couple of these dances at Utsav 2007.

Bhangra was born as a folk dance to celebrate the warm harvest festival in Punjab, the northern state of India, and also in Pakistan. While it ushered the joyous month of harvest, it filled the air with sounds of drums, vocals and claps. Generating warm patriotism with music full of excitement, Bhangra takes the form of boliyan (short poems) accompanied by with the bass of the dhol (drum). This high energy dance is primarily a male dance, but in this day and age the dance is done by both men and women.

Giddha is Punjab’s most famous folk dance for women. In Giddha, the women enact verses called bolis, folk poetry, and dance with a clapping rhythm. The subject matter of these bolis includes everything from arguments with the father-in-law to political affairs. The dance rhythm is set by the dhols and the distinctive hand claps of the dancers. These days, people associate Giddha with Bhangra. Giddha is very popular item at festivals like Teeyaan, where women and girls celebrate the coming of the monsoon season.