Boogie Woogie India

Today we have a contribution from one of our member who explained to us about the importance of ghungroos in classical dance. “Jaishree” who has been a silent reader for sometime who is herself a well trained classical dancer, have contributed her first article. We are very thankful to her and appreciate her taking time in writing and making this blog lot more worthwhile. Thank You Jaishree!! God Bless You! We look forward to hearing from you more.

We often observe that Indian classical dancers wear ghungroo (foot bells) in their feet just above their ankles. Today let us see why they wear and what the importance of ghungroo is in the Indian classical dance.

Ghungroos are made with brass and they are tiny bells tied together to a cloth which is worn above the ankle on feet while performing classical dance. You will also find ghungroo tied to either leather or other material but many dancers who believe in sanctity, ahimsa do not use those as they perform in temples or at religious functions. Ghungroo in two words can be said that is used as a musical accessory. The sounds that are produced from it are often rhythmic and go with the other musical instruments that are played during the performance.

Ghungroos are considered sacred by a majority of classical dancers. They worship them and place them with high importance. It is believed that a dancer never throws her ghungroos after her performance and instead places it at a higher seat called Asan as a mark of respect.

Indian classical dancers strongly believe in mother earth as the Goddess Bhumati. They execute steps in rhythmic patterns touching their feet in full and also with their heel and toes. Ghungroo also adds a different charm to a dance. When ghungroos are not worn, the music instruments play heavy role. But a dancer always prefers to dance with her or his ghungroos as their preference. The rhythmic pattern of a dance makes a powerful ecstatic, divine sound and charm. If a dancer is skilled, he or she can very well produce different sounds out of these ghungroos sounding differently that can vary from loud to mild to slow. A good skilled dancer also has a knack to sound just one ghungroo out of many or sound only few of them or all making a thunderous sound from all ghungroos. A dancer who wears ghungroos often relates to the music that is played on tabla and sounds in sync with the instrument.

Ghungroos are made of brass and they are available at reasonable cost. They also are durable and can last a long time. Brass bells make a mesmerizing sound although people also wear bells that are made with silver as they sound enchanting too. Ghungroos are also inexpensive to repair if they are broken. A string of ghungroos can anywhere range between 50 bells to more then 200 tiny bells all knotted together.

Some of the Indian Classical dances that use ghungroos are “Bharatnatyam”, “Kuchipudi”, “Odissi” and “Kathak”.

- Jaishree