'Danda' Dance Drama of Western Odisha

‘Danda’ Dance Drama of Western Odisha

‘Danda’ dance drama is a regional theatre format of Odisha. The performance includes live singing, dancing and acting by the artists. However, ‘Danda’ differs from region to region even in the state. Like ‘Danda’ of Ganjam is quite different from that of Western Odisha. Further, coming to western Odisha, different districts have their own styles (schools/format) but still the format is more or less the same. Here in this article we discuss about this western Odisha School of ‘Danda’ dance.

‘Danda’ dance of western Odisha displays some Hindu religious stories from mythology. Music and dance are the two most important components of this format. ‘Danda’ is performed only in the Hindu chaitra month of the year, when the group (normally the participants of this group are called ‘Dandua’) sets out with the Goddess and Her belongings from the village.

‘Chhatar’ (umbrella) is of prime importance to the Goddess and hence the persons who hold the ‘Chhatar’ and the Goddess maintain a disciplined life during that particular month. If I am not wrong, that is the only month when the Chhatars are kept open and during rest of the year, they are kept closed. An open ‘Chhatar’ symbolizes that the Goddess is in a live state, ready to answer to every prayer and action of the devotees.

On the invitation of the hosts, the troupe marches to the venue during daytime in a procession with drum beat and perform some worship right on that place where they are supposed to perform the dance drama at the night. In the local language, this practice is called ‘Pani Danda bhangiba’. Then they return to their place to take rest.

After the dusk the same day all troupe members reach the venue and the show begins. In Balangir, danda dance of ‘Sikuan’, ‘Khadjura’ and some other places are much popular. Magsira is a popular drummer (Dholia, the person who plays a dhol, means the folk drum of this area) in western Odisha.

After a couple of small performances like ‘Brushava’ dance and ‘Dhup Khel’ the actual performance begins from ‘Parva’ dance. A person, who is in vow, wears the prabha. It is believed that the Goddess herself remains present in that ‘Prabha’ (uttered as parbha in the local dialect).

Wearing the huge stuff, the person dances to the beats of dhol for around 20 minutes. The beats for this prabha dance is fixed, it is called ‘Sulha Khadi Baja’, which means 16 numbers of beats are played. With advancement of the performance gradually the person gets acquired by the deity and so dances with some such tough steps, which is purely impossible on the part of a normal human being. Like, he jumps to a big height during the dance, which is nearly impossible for a normal man. When the person enters to the extreme state, where he forgets himself, the priest comes near him and separates the ‘Prabha’ from him and then the person becomes normal.

The second item is normally ‘Hara-Parvati’ dance, where the two characters basically depict about the rituals. This is followed by appearance of Duti, the friend of Goddess Radha and then Radha herself enters into the frame followed by Krishna and then Binakalia. The plot is the eternal love story of Hindu Gods Radha and Krishna as depicted in the mythological books and they get paired till the end of the show.

However, some troupes display some other story backed by some other characters. Normally, ‘Danda Nacha’ continues for the whole night. Main musical instruments played in this show are Dhol and flute. Besides that Mandal, Gini (cymbals) and other percussions, sometimes Harmonium and in some cases even a keyboard synthesizer is played. Normally all the lady characters are also played by boys, attired with female wardrobes.

Unfortunately, with the advent of western culture, this folk dance form is on the verge of extinction like many other tribal or regional arts. In the last years, a ‘mixture danda’, which can be seen as a modern adaptation of the original ‘Danda’ was released and it became much popular in western Odisha. Subsequently, after coming of the Video album phase in Odisha, a number of ‘Danda’ albums were produced and released in the local market.