#nautches

[carbone14]

Ada Forman - The Nautch Dancer - 1920's

Photo de Maurice Goldberg

[rrcraft-and-lore]

Tawaif - a highly skilled courtesan (skilled in: music, dance, poetry, and singing) who catered to nobility in South Asia. Similar in respects to Geisha in many ways, including that sex was NOT obligatory. It occurred, but the primary function was entertainment.

Most commonly romantic poetry like Ghazals -a form of Arabic poetry that made its way over to South Asia: odes of long lost lovers, tragedy, separation, stuff to pull at your heart strings. And, shairi, another Arab/Persian kind of poetry that is built on monorhymed quatrains or four sixteen syllable lines (keeping to the same rhyme scheme) with a caesura used between lines 8//9 to break up the first half from the second.

During the British Occupation, they were simply called, Nautch girls or dance girls. But this is far from all they did or were capable of. The name itself, Tawaif, is the term for a HIGHLY SKILLED courtesan. They were trained to the upmost of artistic forms. They were not there to perform sex acts - that was often incidental and not contractual. And the women had the power to rebuff men's advances.

The Tawaifs of India were regarded as some of the greatest performing artists of their time with documented praise and examples from travelers such as Xuanzang, a Chinese pilgrim, notable traveling Buddhist Monk and scholar who frequented India, remarking on the Tawaifs skill, beauty, and performances during once such visit to the Sun Temple in Multan. Al-Biruni, often regarded as the father of Comparative Religion studies, an Iranian polymath and scholar, regarded on their skill and larger numbers during the 11th century CE upon a visit Ganikas, another entertainer, are a public dancing girl (very common in cities from the Vedic period upward) who received classical arts training (most obviously dancing) and often performed from public settings up to royal private ones - and would compete to become Nagarvadhu - the most beautiful woman and most highly talented in forms of art (dance mostly).

Many young girls would leave or were taken to be taught these skills, and yes, there were schools for this too as well as private tutelage. People don't often realize this, but Ancient India was a place of extreme learning with all kinds of schools for different disciplines. A place of academies. Something I've talked about, like places like Nalanda, the world's oldest residential university that attracted people from far as Greece to Japan anyways, Tawaifs were so successful and sought after, that records show they were consistently among the highest tax payers.

Records also show that their wealth was used (by their consent/given) to help fund rebellions against the British Raj - enough so that the British passed laws to strip them of their ability to work as courtesans and left them only with sex work, which is sadly why some stories today only speak of them as prostitutes and not knowing their full, complex, and impactful history.

It's said the art of all this came from Urvashi, an Apsara (celestial being of dance, song, seduction/temptation, art, music).

[postcard-from-the-past]

Nautch (court dance in the Subcontinent) performer from Ceylon, Sri Lanka

British vintage postcard

[kamlesm]

Umrao Jaan, rebels in Lucknow

During mughal era Awadh had many stories about nawabs marrying many wives and in addition had many courtesans, dancer singers for entertainment. Few women were proficient in Arts of Dance and singing and we’re often associated with community of tawaif and many more names ie derewali kothe wali domni etc. Few such women were independent earners, I term them as entrepreneur. As they patronized…

[random-brushstrokes]

Mortimer Menpes - Nautch girls at Delhi (1913-14)

[aloneandforsakenbyfateandbyman]

Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls (1973)

[molkolsdal]

Portrait of Begum Samru, born Farzana Zeb un-Nissa, married Christian name Joanna Nobilis Sombre (c. 1753-1836)

Unknown artist, Delhi School

watercolour on paper

Delhi, India, c. 1830

Starting her career as a dancing (nautch) girl, Begum Samru eventually converted from Islam to Christian Catholicism and became the ruler of the small territory of Sardhana in present-day Uttar Pradesh. She was the head of a professionally trained mercenary army consisting of Europeans and Indians that she inherited from her European husband, Walter Reinhardt Sombre after his passing in 1778. She built several palaces including at Chandni Chowk in Delhi. Stories have been written about her political and dipolomatic astuteness and the important battles fought by the troops under her command. This painting follows the format of a portrait miniature on ivory but is larger and on paper surrounded by a lavish decorative border. She is depicted older in age with her right hand holding the end of a hookah pipe. It may have been part of a set of portraits of Indian rulers of the 19th century.

[g0j0s]

a letter from the beloved

sahib jaan reads and re-reads the few words on a piece of paper that was once carefully placed by her feet that one morning during her train journey. after a long night of dancing and singing, she bathes and changes into a white colored set. depicting that regardless of her background as a nautch girl, her heart is as pure and untainted as any. she is in every way pakh. she dips her hair in the running rose water fountain by her bed and goes on to reading the words of liberation this stranger had conjured up for her. oh, but what does he know? if he knew about her doomed circumstances, would he have said the same things. regardless, she hides specks of hope in the pores of the paper and the fragrance of the ink. she tries to feel the traces of his hands that are still lingering on the letter and soon goes to sleep. wether love was meant for a girl like her or not, she cannot help but feel fulfilled.

[bollywoodirect]

Happy Birthday, #Helen (21/11).

Helen's foray into Bollywood began with a little help from a family friend, actress Cuckoo. Starting with group dance roles in movies like "Shabistan" (1951) and "Awaara" (1951), Helen quickly became a regular in the industry. Her talent shone through, earning her solo dance spots in films such as "Alif Laila" (1954) and "Hoor-e-Arab" (1955). Notably, she also appeared as a street singer in "Mayurpankh" (1954).

A significant breakthrough came in 1958 when Helen was just 19. Her performance in the song "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu" from the film "Howrah Bridge" captured hearts. Sung by Geeta Dutt, this song marked the start of a series of successful projects for Helen. The 1960s and 1970s saw her rise to fame, with Geeta Dutt lending her voice for many of Helen's performances. During this period, Helen often portrayed characters who would perform a song or dance and then exit the plot, paving the way for the film's lead actress.

By 1969, Helen had become a household name, even gracing the cover of Filmfare Magazine. Another prominent singer, Asha Bhosle, frequently provided playback for Helen's performances, especially during the 1960s and early 1970s. Helen's versatility wasn't just limited to dance; she was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1965 for her role in "Gumnaam". Her dramatic roles in "China Town" and "Sachaai" (1969), alongside Shammi Kapoor, were box office hits. She also portrayed a compelling character in "Chhote Sarkar" (1974), co-starring Shammi Kapoor and Sadhana. Helen's hit dance numbers included 'Suku Suku' in "Junglee", 'Yamma Yamma' in "China Town", and several others.

Helen's fame wasn't confined to the Indian cinema; she performed on stages in London, Paris, and Hong Kong. In 1973, "Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls", a 30-minute documentary by Merchant Ivory Films, highlighted her life and career. This was followed by Jerry Pinto's book "The Life and Times of an H-Bomb" in 2006, which won a National Film Award. Writer Salim Khan played a key role in Helen's career, casting her in several films he co-scripted. Her performance in "Lahu Ke Do Rang" (1979) earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. In recognition of her contributions, Helen received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.

Though she officially retired in 1983, Helen made occasional appearances in films like "Khamoshi: The Musical" (1996) and "Mohabbatein" (2000). She also appeared alongside her real-life step-son #SalmanKhan in "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" and in "Humko Deewana Kar Gaye" (2006). Her contributions were further acknowledged when she was selected for the Padma Shri in 2009, alongside Aishwarya Rai and Akshay Kumar. Helen also served as a judge in the semifinals and finals of India's 2009 "Dancing Queen" television series.

[walzerjahrhundert]

Samuel Bourne

Native Nautch at Delhi [or Shalimar?]

1864

[beguines]

It is easy to overlook the hostility or sheer incomprehension communist women encountered in the 1940s and 1950s. When they went out trying to recruit middle-class women, they were told, "This is a respectable family. Our women won't talk to you". Some slurs were predictable. The Kolkata newspaper Anandabazar Patrika dubbed them "public women". In Bombay, a Congress candidate for elections called the women of the Marathi Cultural Squad "nautch girls". The women confronted him, forcing him to apologize before his own audience. It was no easier in rural settings: Manikuntala Sen recalls that when she went to a village with a male comrade, "The men of the household did not come to meet me because I was a woman. The women weren't coming forth either because I was a political leader and hence the equivalent of a man". At the same time, within the Party they were often positioned "not as independent political subjects but as wives, mothers and daughters," even as they were asked "to participate in the class struggle" . . . Although communist women shared many of the culturally dominant notions about appropriate modes of gendered behaviour, they also fought hard to dismantle such attitudes and to carve out a new political space for themselves and other women. While the communes housed only some of these activists, they made it possible for women to live without fear and to forge strong and sustaining friendships with each other and with men in a culture where this was hardly possible.

Ania Loomba, Revolutionary Desires: Women, Communism, and Feminism in India

[rhianna]

The humour of Spain. by Susette M. Taylor and H. R. Millar

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69530

A certain mysterious charm clings to the Spanish people, by reason of the long domain of more than seven hundred years of the Moors over the Peninsula, and consequent intermingling, to some degree, of race, and considerable Oriental influence on the national life and characteristics. The chief sport of the Spaniards, the bull-fight, is of Moorish origin; their popular dances and songs raise recollections of Indian Nautch-girls and the choruses in Moroccan coffee-houses; their predominant sentiment, the jealousy over their women, points back to the strict seclusion of the harem.

[exploring-the-past]

Nautch girl dancing with musicians accomp. Calcutta, India

Digital ID: (digital file from b&w film copy neg.) cph 3a35609 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a35609

Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-35125 (b&w film copy neg.)

Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

[lboogie1906]

Edna Guy (1907-1983) was the first African American to study professional dance with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. She loved dance and wanted to perform like Ruth St. Denis. She saw St. Denis dance in concert and met her backstage after writing a note that she signed Edna Guy, Negro girl.

She was born in Summit, New Jersey. She took classes at Hunter College, studying typing and shorthand. Her parents were hotel workers. She married Walter McCully on May 21, 1939, and moved to Enfield, New Hampshire and the couple had a daughter. She stopped dancing in the mid-1940s due to a series of heart attacks, but she did continue to teach dance.

She performed twice with Hemsley Winfield and his Black modern dance company. She danced the solo Madrassi Nautch and in A Temple Offering during a benefit performance. She danced in the “First Negro Dance Recital in America” at the Theater in the Clouds. She was one of the principal performers in the Negro revue, Fast and Furious.

She taught interpretive rhythmic dancing for Winfield at his dance school in a Carnegie Hall studio. She headed a branch of the Ruth St. Denis School of Dancing at the Utopia Children’s House.

She choreographed Negro spirituals that were performed by the Harlem Girl Scouts at Carnegie Hall in the “Pageant for World Peace.” She danced in the “Drama of the Negro Dance” at the YMHA. This concert was called the second important contribution of the Negro to the interpretive dance art of America after the first concert. She danced After Gauguin and How Long Brethren.

She wrote, Negro Dance Pioneer where she stated that Hemsley Winfield, Katherine Dunham, and she had started the Negro dance movement. She and her dance companies performed in New York City, Harlem, DC, and New Jersey.

She became a photographer and won a prize for her photograph, “Ruth,” at the American Negro Fair in Chicago. She gave an exhibit of her photographs at the Reckling Music Studio. She had created sculptures while learning that art form alongside Augusta Savage. She continued to teach dance and choreography, as well as crafts, ceramics, and painting in Kingston, New York in the ’60s. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[poemoftheday]

Poem of the Day 25 March 2024

NATURAL MAGIC by Robert Browning

All I can say is—I saw it! The room was as bare as your hand. I locked in the swarth little lady,—I swear, From the head to the foot of her—well, quite as bare!  "No Nautch shall cheat me," said I, "taking my stand At this bolt which I draw!" And this bolt—I withdraw it,  And there laughs the lady, not bare, but embowered With—who knows what verdure, o'erfruited, o'erflowered? Impossible! Only—I saw it! 10All I can sing is—I feel it!   This life was as blank as that room; I let you pass in here. Precaution, indeed? Walls, ceiling, and floor,—not a chance for a weed! Wide opens the entrance: where's cold, now, where's gloom? No May to sow seed here, no June to reveal it, Behold you enshrined in these blooms of your bringing, These fruits of your bearing—nay, birds of your winging! A fairy-tale! Only—I feel it!