Bollywood Dance, Music and Costuming

What is Bollywood dance? One could say it is the dancing in Bollywood films, which is in turn a mixture many styles, both Indian and Western, and be perfectly correct. From Chandrakantha.com:

[Bollywood dance] is a mixture of numerous styles. These styles include belly-dancing, kathak, Indian folk, Western popular, and modern, jazz, and even Western erotic dancing . . . Its exact definition, geographical distribution, and stylistic characteristics are amorphous. In spite of all of this, it is surprisingly recognisable.

To understand the real flavor of Bollywood dance, however, it is necessary to understand its context: Bollywood films. India's film industry is almost as old as that of the West, and it is now the largest in the world, but the Bollywood films show no sign of becoming subtle or understated. The themes are larger than life, sometimes with casts of hundreds, stretch on for three hours (with an intermission) and are unremittingly full of color, music, dancing, stunts, comedy, tragedy, sound and fury. Bollywood stars are national mega-stars. Billboards advertising Bollywood films cover entire buildings. From the book The Art of Bollywood:

It has been called an independent state of the Indian union, a domain with its own language, customs, and codes. The claim is not exaggerated, for Bollywood is indeed an alternate reality far removed from the drab gray world we inhabit.

Over the years, Bollywood has given birth to a famously hybrid form of cinema that mashes together Indian and foreign influences. For Western viewers accustomed to their own traditions of stroytelling, the Bollywood narrative often seems a mere device to present extravagant song-and-dance numbers, high-strung emotion, comic interludes, fights, and a host of other elements. This kind of film is commonly known in India as the masala film, after the Hindi word for a spicy mix. Bollywood has derived many other uniquely Indian genres as well - mythologicals and devotionals, which draw inspiration from the Hindu epics; socials, which are essentially urban melodrams; stunt films, which are an eccentrically Indian take on the American B movie; and so on.

The chief attractions in any Bollywood movie are its stars, who in India command devotion to the extent that temples are built in their honor. Gossip magazines and national newspapers alike track their every move...Their loyal followers tend to watch their films again and again, which is why certain cult films.. have run for many years in theatres.

Hindi cinema's influence can be seen everwhere, from television, fashion, and advertising to the very language of the streets. Its images pervade the visual culture of the subcontinent...They dominate public spaces everywhere - Bollywood produces publicity images on a scale that has transformed the urban environment in India, turning entire cities into galleries for its giant displays.

Bollywood Dance

Unlike American movies, where dance numbers diminished and almost disappeared over the years, Bollywood films often include many solo and group dances. From Dance.LoveToKnow.com:

With the pressure of production schedules, choreographers have drawn on the movement vocabulary of the rich Hindu dance traditions to enable them to teach and create dances quickly and efficiently. Most actors in Bollywood have some classical dance training, and so familiarity with many forms of dance, Bollywood hand gestures included, is very common. It also lends a particularly Indian flavor to any film (many of which are making their way to the West).This is not to say that there are not contemporary dance moves put into the choreography as well. Jazz, ballet, even hip-hop have become common, all infused with traditional Indian dance. These dance numbers give the Bollywood actresses, usually very demure and prim, a chance to really "vamp it up" and strut their stuff on the dance floor. Much choreography for women focuses on the hips and torso, whereas men are usually given fancy footwork solos; both sexes use their hands in the traditional hastas or hand gestures.

Bollywood Music

TheBollySongs has taken the trouble to compile links to hundreds of Bollywood songs on Youtube. This is a total of hundreds of songs. The navigation is a bit confusing but it is well worth the visit. If the channel is too confusing, start with this jukebox page.

Bollywood Art

Bollywood Costuming

Bollywood Videos

1. Ruric-Amari and two members of her Bollywood troupe, Samovar East, at the University of Kentucky Indian Dance Competition at Diwali 2011.
2. Ruric and Samovar at Mediterranean Echoes in 2011.
3. Dola Re Dola with Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit sets the standard.
4. The truly epic classic movie Mughal-e-Azam (1960): the plot, which has a prince falling in love with a dancer against his father's wishes, provides plenty of opportunity for dancing. The soundtrack is considered outstanding.
5. Queen Harish, the self-declared "One & Only Whirling, Dancing Desert Drag Queen," is an extraordinary dancer with a concise, fluid and expressive style. Here he interprets the music to a dance made famous by Aishwarya Rai.

References

• Bollywood hand gestures from Dance.LoveToKnow.com. "Make no mistake, these are not just aesthetic moves - every hasta has a meaning, and the use of them in choreography tells a story or carries on a conversation between the dancers. According to Love Bollywood, an English fan site, there are twenty-three double hand gestures and thirty-two single hand gestures, which gives a fairly wide vocabulary for the choreographers to use."
• A brief but informative history of Bollywood. "Bollywood dance may be seen as being on the ascendency in the world markets. Much of this is due to the ever expanding Indian diaspora, but a significant proportion comes from non-Indians who for whatever reason, are taken by the exotic, larger than life qualities inherent in it."