Culture & Traditions – Song Dance

Across Kerala, classical dances, traditional songs and colourful dramas telling fantastic tales of deities and demons are performed with passion and precision. Every dance form features its own complex, choreographed mix of subtle movements, and students often train for years to perfect every nuance and gesture. Elaborate costomes, brightly painted masks and heavy jewerelly are donned for each performance and, like the dances themselves, the style, design and colour of every outfit is dictated by tradition.

Song and dance play an integral part in most festivals, and some celebrations are even held in honour of such art forms – in Thiruvananthapuram for example, the annual Navarathri Festival praises Mother Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, whilst the Nishagandhi Dance Festival celebrates classical dance in all its myriad forms.