Bhangra

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Bhangra dancers
Dhol player at a festival in London

Bhangra is a Punjabi folk dance that has its origins in Punjab , an area in northwest India and Pakistan .

Originally it was mainly danced by men, as women preferred the Giddha - not least because of the sweeping dance steps that were difficult to depict in traditional clothes.

Bhangra is not only a fixed point on the agenda of all festivities in Punjab, but is, besides Bollywood dance, the only dance that is popular in all of India.

There are no set dance steps as in many European dances; During the bhangra, the dancers usually move loosely, hop on the floor and swing their arms. Accordingly, everyone can learn Bhangra easily. However, professional bhangra groups invent more and more unusual steps which they then combine with classic ones.

Usually the double-headed barrel drum dhol (or dholak ) provides the rhythmic accompaniment. Other traditional accompanying instruments are the chimta , a percussion instrument with iron rods, and the wooden rattle sap . The characteristic tone sequences are produced by the tumbi , a single-stringed spit lute , in its place the somewhat larger ektara , and the double flute alghoza . Nowadays, however, more and more bhangra groups are switching to music tapes or CDs, as it is not always possible to find a dhol player, for example. Indians and Pakistanis living abroad try to maintain the bhangra through competitions, which are also held in large numbers in India.

British Bhangra has also become internationally known as a fusion between Western pop and traditional Punjab folk music through Indians in Great Britain . Modern bands and solo artists like Panjabi MC have put the bhangra in the music charts by mixing traditional elements with pop , hip hop and modern Indian music. Mundian To Bach Ke and Jogi from Panjabi MC are best known .

In India today, Bhangra is mostly used to describe the type of Indian pop music played in Indian discos and on MTV , which, along with the soundtracks of Bollywood productions, is one of the most popular pop music in the country.

Abroad, especially in the UK, Canada and the US , bhangra is a part of the music played in discos. In Germany and Austria, too, the bhangra is making its way from the underground clubs to larger establishments.

See also

literature

  • Laura Leante: Shaping Diasporic Sounds: Identity as Meaning in Bhangra. In: The World of Music, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Contemporary British Music Traditions) 2004, pp. 109-132

Web links

Commons : Bhangra  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Laura Leante, p. 110