Gussadi Dance

Understand

Where Gussadi Dance comes from

Gussadi (also spelled Gussadi or Ghussadi) is the men's folk-dance of the Gond and Pardhan Adivasi communities of the Adilabad and northern Telangana districts (particularly the forests of the Penganga-Pranhita river belt). The dance is performed at the harvest festival (the Pola and the Sohrai) and at the marriage of the community. The Gussadi takes its name from the elaborate headpiece (the gussadi) — a tall decorated structure of peacock feathers, cowrie shells, brass ornaments and small mirrors — that the male dancers wear in the dance. The dance is performed at the Diwali festival particularly, with the community gathering in the village ground to celebrate the post-monsoon agricultural success.

How it's practiced

Gussadi is performed by troupes of men of the Gond and Pardhan community in a circle at the central village ground of the festival. The men wear the elaborate gussadi (the headpiece of peacock feathers, cowries and brass) and the bright white dhoti with the heavy brass belt and the bells of the community. The dance is characterised by vigorous leaps and the rhythmic stamping of the feet to the beat of the mandal-drum, with the men also performing the characteristic small jumps and turns of the Adivasi tradition. Music is the dhol, the dholak and the small mandal, with songs of the Gussadi-katta tradition. Costume is the colourful regional Adivasi dress of northern Telangana — the white dhoti, the heavy brass belt, the gussadi headpiece and the community jewellery of silver and brass.