Lavani 'dhoom macha de!'

It’s time to celebrate the sensuous folk art of Maharashtra. As part of the annual initiative, the Directorate of Cultural Affairs of Maharashtra Government has organised a three-day Lavani festival in partnership with National Center of the Performing Arts (NCPA). The festival showcases traditional folk arts such as Tamasha, Khadi Ganmat, Lavani and Dashavatar.

There are close to 40-50 groups of Lavani folk art in Maharashtra today. Each group has 10-15 artists of which 9-10 are dancers and the rest are percussionists. The Directorate of Cultural Affairs has invited nine groups to perform at the NCPA from March 17-19.

The word Lavani comes from the word lavanya which means beauty. The beginnings of Lavani can be traced back to 1560s. As a dance form, it requires lots of movements of the waist and the hip. It has mostly been popularised as a form having  stark erotic content but it actually isn’t so. “Lavani has many forms other than the erotic one. It can be very spiritual and spread social unity and awareness among masses. A good example is the Ganesh festival where this dance form is performed as a ritual,” says one of the
organisers.

Sulochana Chavan (singer), Maya Jadhav (dancer) and Gulabbai Sangamnerkar (singer) are among the three big Lavani artists in Maharashtra today who will be performing during the festival. In its fourth consecutive year, the festival has become a good platform in conserving and promoting the traditional forms of folk art. “Thankfully, these days the dance form has gained quite a bit of popularity among the elite class of Maharashtra. It’s good to see it become part of college festivals and movie sequences as well,” says the organiser.