Kathak is one of the many forms of Indian classical dances that have originated from Northern India. There are three major schools or gharanas of Kathak: Jaipur, Lucknow and Banaras gharana.
Its name is derived from Sanskrit, which means “story teller,” and as the name suggests, each movement—hand gestures, suggestive lift of an eyebrow—tells numerous stories.
Usually the performance enacts a mythological or a moral tale that has traditionally been performed in temples as homage to the deities. The Kathak dancer moves in complete unison with the beat of the tabla as the dancer progressively increases its tempo from slow to fast that finally end in a climactic sam (meaning equality in English).
Mataprasad Mishra (2010)
