Bhangra

Understand

Where Bhangra comes from

Bhangra is the male folk dance of Punjab with origins in the historical Sialkot District, where farmers performed the dance to welcome the new harvest season. The form is especially associated with the Vaisakhi festival (the Sikh and Punjabi New Year, in April-May), with roots in the Majha region of Punjab. The 1950s saw Bhangra move from village field to staged performance under the patronage of the Maharaja of Patiala, with dance troupes led by the brothers Sohan and Dharam Singh of Gurdaspur and the Sukhchain Singh Asal troupe. From the 1960s onward the form was further codified into competition and stage Bhangra, and from the 1990s spread to Punjabi diaspora communities in the UK, US and Canada, where it became a defining cultural identity of the diaspora. Today Bhangra is one of India's most internationally recognised folk dances.

How it's practiced

Bhangra is performed by groups of men (and increasingly women in modern practice) executing vigorous kicks, leaps, and bends of the body, often with upraised, thrusting arm or shoulder movements, accompanied by the boliyan — short traditional Punjabi songs — and by the dhol drum. The dhol is played with a heavy beater on one end and a lighter stick on the other, producing a syncopated swinging rhythm that is the hallmark of Bhangra. Steps include the basic Jhummar shuffle, the giddha-phummi'an shoulder rotation, the lock-jaw and the billao. The performance builds from a slow opening to a frenetic climax at harvest tempo. The costume is the bright Punjabi kurta with a tie-and-dye lamba or patka around the waist, heavy boliyan-style turban (pagri), and the traditional Punjabi jutis on the feet.