Dances in kerala

The culture of kerala is mixed with the influences of Dravidian and Aryans. Even the culture of kerala is the blend of tamil heritage and Karnataka. Kerala is very ahead in performing arts which includes koodiyattom, kathatkali from the word katha which is story and the word kali which is performance.

And the other performing arts are keral natanam, koothu, mohinaattam, thullal, padayani, and theyyam which are very popular. Mohiniyattam is also spelled as mohiniattom and mohiniyattam. The dances of kerala are very famous all over the world.

Mohiniyattam is a south Indian traditional dance from kerala. This is a solo dance which is performed by a women. The meaning of the mohiniyattam is, the word ‘mohini’ means the women who sing and the word ‘aattam’ means the sumptuous body.

The meaning of the word mohiniaattam as a whole is ‘dance of the enchantress’. There is a long story behind this dance mohiniyattam. There are many stories behind this dance and it is related to the lord Vishnu who camouflaged as mohini.

In the story lord Vishnu who appears as mohini to tempt the asuras to keep away from the honey of immortality obtained by churning the ocean which is of milk.

In the other story vishnu who is in the form of mohini saves lord shiva from the demon bhasmasura. So the meaning of this word mohinayattam is very deep and lots of stories are involved in this word. This dance used to perform by the devadasis in the temples which has some element of the dance koothu and kottiyattom.

The dance kathakali is a south Indian dance which is originated from the kerala. The dance which is known as kathakali was originated late back in the sixteen century, exact figure can be in between fifteen hundred fifty five to sixteen hundred zero five AD.

Koodiyattam is also called as kutiyattam which is a traditional dance of the state kerala. This is the dance which is performed traditionally in the theatres.

This dance is performed in the hindu temple in the language of Sanskrit. The dance was recognized by the UNESCO and considered as the master piece. Conventionally the dance is performed by the chakyars which is a sub caste in kerala.

This dance is also performed by the nangyaramma. The word koodiyattam suggest the mixed performance of nangyar and chakyar. Dances of kerala are very famous in the world because of the rich culture and tradition which is involved in it.