Kolatam

Kolatam is a play with sticks. This is known as hallisaka and dandarasaka in sanskrit. In olden days females used to play kolatam in temple halls as a devotional offering. Now the kolatam played by males is a folk art form.

A troupe consists of twenty to forty members or the least eight members. There are even numbers of players and a leader in every troupe. The troupe leader is called pennuddi or kolanna pantulu or garuva. He controls and leads the troupe. A pair of two players is called uddi in which one is called rama and the other is lakshmana. All the players form a big circle in the beginning and change into two circles one in another. The leader along with the mridangam, flute, harmonium and cymbal players, stand in the middle of the inner circle.

Each player holds two sticks one in each hand with coloured strings or bells tied to their ends. As soon as the leader signals, pairs in the circle starts moving with a prayer to lord ganesha. The leader then cries out the rhythm etlugada and begins a song. The songs are in different rhymes and beats. They may be prayers, duets, descriptions or narratives delineating bhakti, sringara, karuna and virarasa. The variety in steps is called kopulu. There are 50 kinds of kopulu as maximum and minimum number ranges from six to twelve.

When the troupe leader sings the first line of the song the players sing the second line and strike the sticks moving or jumping forward and backward in the circles. The leader whistles and changes the speed to a high crescendo. This is called ‘usi’. The players accordingly move with fast steps maintaining the speed for some time and stop with muktayimpu. The troupe leader then takes up another kopu and the kolatam continues with different style.

There is a special type of kolatam called ‘jada kolatam’or veni kolatam’. This is more popular in Karnataka. The troupe consisting of 12 to 18 players holding coloured strings or ropes tied above to a pole or branch of a tree form into a circle. The circle’s movements inside and outside are so well timed and executed that the ropes hanging from the top become plaited to form a jada or veni. When the troupe dances anticlockwise the ropes are unwound again, colourful ribbons on platforms during ceremonial occasions.

Chiratala bhajana

Chiratala bhajana or chekka bhajana resembles kolattam very closely in its movements, steps, dance and style and songs except that the players hold chiratalu instead of sticks. All the technical terms like jattu, garidi, uddi, kopu, ettugada, muktayimpu, usi are common to both kolattam and chiratala bhajana. Chiratalu, a pair of wooden pieces chiseled and riveted with jingling bells and metal pieces, produces metallic and rattling sound. The two pieces can be held in a palm like a single piece by inserting the thumb and middle finger into the rings fixed in the centre on the top side of the wooden pieces.

By opening and closing the palm the two pieces strike each other and produces musical sound. In kolattam each player hold two sticks one in each hand, in chiratala bhajana the players hold a pair of chiratalu in one hand and a colourful handkerchief in another which he waves while jumping and dancing. The kolattam kopus are of short duration where as the chiratala bhajana kopus are of long duration facilitating narration of episodes from epics and puranas. There are nearly 100 kinds of kopus depicting variety in the steps.

In modern times long narratives have been divided into small bits with different gatis and styles. In olden days lamp posts used to be erected in the middle of the circle of players. Now troupe leader stands in the middle and sings the narrative playing cymbals or chiratalu.

A troupe consisting of 10 to 20 members forms into a circle while the leader who stands in the centre begins the bhajan, directing the troupe. All members follow him. The commencing steps are known as adi adugu (beginning steps). This is compulsory item. The other steps are known as potu adugu, kuppadugu, kulukula adugu, joku adugu, nemili adugu, gurappu adugu, uyyala adugu. The players hang garlands in their necks and tie jingling bells to their ankles, they also tie colourful waist bands.

Dappu dance

Dappu is a percussion instrument. It is a counterpart of dandora of north india. It is also called tappeta in coastal andhra. It is made out of calf hide fixed to the margosa wooden structure in a circular shape. It is beaten with two sticks one thin and the other thicker. The form belongs exclusively to harijans. Dappu dance is a vigorous type of dance as the dappu is a powerful percussion instrument. A troupe consisting of ten to twenty artistes presents dappu dance during marriage processions, car festivals of deities and village fairs and festivals. Tiger steps, bird steps, horse steps are some of the styles of dance movements presented in the dappu dance.

Sometimes the songs sung verge on obscenity as in lella patalu to settle old scores. The beat of the dappu and the foot work of the dancers synchronise with each other so perfectly that from a slow moving, low-beating rhythm, it reaches its climax with the frantic drums keeping pace with the dazzling foot work by the dancers.

They play several kinds of rhythms like trisra, chaturasa, mirsa, khandagati, sankeerna, jatis, comprising seven type of beats. They follow different kinds of dance, leaping from one side to another with complicated foot work. They tie jingling bells to their ankles. Spectators throw coins on a dappu placed on the ground. When the players around that dappu beat their drums vigorously, the dappu placed on the ground responds to the sound vibrations and the coins over it dance and slide down to be picked up as a reward by the artistes.

Puli vesham or tiger dance

This is a popular one-man dance performed during dussehra and muharram festivals. An able bodied man with a narrow strip of cloth around the waist, and the whole body painted with stripes like a tiger and elaborate make-up, sporting a long tail, dances vigorously in tiger like strides and wild jumps. A dappu or mridangam provides the rhythm. In some parts of andhra a second man behind the dancer carries the artificial but heavy tail tied to the back of the dancer. The dancer lifts a brass pot full of water with his teeth depicting an unruly tiger’s devouring nature and strength.

Gobbi dance

This is a popular dance in coastal andhra during the samkranti festival. The courtyards of all houses are cleaned and decorated with different kinds of rangavallis. Gobbillu i.e. Balls of cow dung are placed in the middle of these designs and worshipped with flowers, kumkum and turmeric. During evenings young girl’s gather around these gobbillu to dance and sing. This dance is a derived form of garba described in dance treatises.