Music for Indian Dance: Classical and Stylized Options

Every dance style has its own characteristic features, including the mood of the dance, its purpose, costumes, movements, and, of course, music. Some dances are performed to various music, while many others have a specific type of musical accompaniment. Indian dance belongs to the latter category.

It is considered a traditional dance form in India and an integral part of the country's mysterious cultural heritage. As you know, gestures play a key role, allowing the dancer to conduct a kind of 'monologue' during the performance. Thus, every movement and facial expression in an Indian dance piece carries special meaning.

But the performer is not the only one 'speaking' in this style: the musical accompaniment also vividly conveys the atmosphere and depth of the dance, as it is performed using special instruments. If you've decided to take up Indian dance, you should definitely learn how to choose appropriate music, as it is very important in this case.

What music suits the classical version? Classical Indian dance is considered the original form of this direction, coming from the distant past. That is why it has retained a strongly religious character, serving as a kind of human appeal to the gods. Consequently, the classical variant is the hardest to learn due to many nuances.

It is divided into several specific dances, each with a particular combination of movements, meaning, costume, and of course, musical accompaniment. So if you want to study the classical genre itself, you need to take music selection seriously and look into detailed information from various sources.

Speaking of general details, the music for the classical variant (also called 'Samaveda') should primarily be performed on traditional Indian instruments (such as venu, sitar, sarod, shehnai, bansuri, etc.), convey the culture's flavor, and feature complex asymmetrical rhythm and a set of symbolic sounds corresponding to the dance theme.

Musical accompaniment for stylized dance. As for choosing music for stylized Indian dance, it is a bit simpler. This variant is not a cultural heritage, has an entertainment nature, and combines movements from many styles (it is the most commonly taught). Therefore, there are no strict criteria for selecting musical accompaniment.

For a performance, you can use any music you like that feels comfortable to dance to. The key is not to lose the Indian flavor: try to include elements of traditional Indian music. For example, it could be any classical melody in a modern arrangement or a new song with a similar style.