btw india has 8 classical dance forms and kathak is the only one that comes from north india. that too thanks to the mughals. we owe.

the same dancers who entertained royal courts, performed on the vedas and puranas inside popular temples of ancient india.
beautiful how art has always transcended human boundaries

during colonization performing arts was forbidden & dancers were forced into prostitution.
but the ‘nautch girls’ preserved n passed on this elegant dance form across generations. nothing was coded or archived. just handed over.
what a great contribution and hardly recognized.

they couldn’t openly teach so they started teaching their own family members and kathak gharanas were formed.
three gharanas of kathak are jaipur gharana, banaras gharana and lucknow gharana. even today one has to belong to one of these gharanas to be able to learn kathak.

jaipur being the northern frontier focused more on aggressive moves and footwork. banaras style is more about spirituality and lucknow is all about ethos and romance.
all three gharanas have produced some exceptionally talented artists.

if you appreciate performing arts, attend a kathak concert and trust me you will come out feeling beautiful and happy :-)