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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Mexico - Traditional Dances, Joint issue with India 2010


Issued on 15 December 2010
Mexico – India – Joint Issue:- India and Mexico, both vibrant and pluralistic democracies, established diplomatic relations in 1950 and completed 60 years. To commemorate the completion of 60 years of diplomatic relations, a Miniature sheet of two stamps was released by Mexico depicting the Kalbelia dance of Rajasthan, India and Jarabe Tapatio, National dance of Mexico.

Kalbelia dance of Rajasthan:
The Kalbeliyas, is a snake-charmer community from Rajasthan, which performs the Kalbeliya dance. They rely heavily on this dance performance for their living. The Kalbeliya women dancers wear long, black coloured, drindled-skirts heavily worked with embroidery and light-coloured thread along with small pieces of mirrors. This costume draws the attention in a somewhat strange way.

The dance is usually performed by a group of two women standing in the center of the stage. After this pair, another pair of women come & dances in the same way. As the women dancers move in a circle, while dancing, their body sway acrobatically, leaving an impression that they are made up of some flexible material like rubber. The beat of the dance increases in tempo and also there is an increase in their pace of the dance. This dance performance leaves viewer as exhausted as the dancer. The overall performance consists of many fearful actions performed by dancers. The performance relies heavily to the music of `been` and `duff`. The actual fun of their performance can be enjoyed at the gatherings somewhere around the festival of Holi.

The dancers are required to constantly decrease the tempo of their gyrations and move to the corners to catch their breath while two other dancers would spin around to take their places in the center. The specialty of this dance is that the dancers perform it in a beautiful synchronized rhythm that for a moment the audience feels they are the same dancers that continue throughout the performance.

Kachhi Ghodi Dance Kachhi Ghodi Dance
It is believed that the Kachhi Ghodi dance is originated from the bandit regions of Shekhawati. Generally, the dance is performed for the entertainment of the bridegroom`s party. Dancers are ready with elaborate costumes that resemble them as if they are riding on a dummy horse. It is a vigorous type of dance. It also uses mock fights and the brandishing of swords, nimble sidestepping and pirouetting to the music of drums. During the performance, a ballad singer sings & exploits of the bandit Robin Hoods of Rajasthan. Men in elaborate costumes ride the equally well-decorated dummy horses. However, they hold naked swords in their hands and move rhythmically on the beating of drums and fifes.

Jarabe Tapatio, National dance of Mexico:
The Jarabe Tapatío dance in its standardized form was first choreographed by the Mexican, in the early twentieth century to celebrate a government-sponsored fiesta that commemorated the successful end of the Mexican Revolution.

Since then, it has become a folk dance popular throughout Mexico and the Southwestern United States. It serves as a symbol of the national pride and honor of the Mexican people.

The dance tells the story of love and courtship. It can be performed either by a couple or a group of couples. A charro, dressed in the traditional charro suit, a three-piece suit composed of a vest, jacket, and pants bearing silver buttons down the seam, makes initial courtship gestures to la china (wearing the traditional China Poblana outfit). It looks almost like a mariachi band's attire. They flirt throughout the beginning of the dance, during which time the man attempts to woo the woman with his zapateado (stamping and tapping) and his machismo. Just as he has impressed the woman, he becomes drunk with glory, and is shooed away as a borracho (an inebriate), but ultimately, he succeeds in conquering the china, throwing his hat to the ground and kicking his leg over his partner's head as she bends down to pick it up. The two do a triumphant march to a military tune called a diana, and the dance ends with a romantic turn or the couple hiding their faces behind the man's sombrero in a feigned kiss.