Loor

Understand

Where Loor comes from

Loor is the women's folk-dance of Haryana, performed at the Phalgun Shukla Panchami festival (the fifth day of the bright fortnight of the Phalgun month) and at marriages. The dance is closely associated with the women's celebration of the coming of spring and of the new harvest. The phrase 'Loor' takes its name from the lyrical refrain typical of the dance's songs and the dance has been preserved as a community-women's tradition across the various districts of Haryana. Today Loor is performed at cultural programmes of the state and at the rural women's festivals of Haryana.

How it's practiced

Loor is performed by groups of women in a circle (or in two rows facing each other) at the Phalgun festival and at the women's celebration of the marriage. The dance is the swirling-circle style with hand-loops of the women's traditional dance — the women turning and dipping and clapping in coordinated patterns to the song. The accompanying songs are the Loor-pad verses (the lyrical cycle of the tradition) with themes of love, marriage and the coming of spring. Music is the dholak and the small cymbals, with the brass shehnai at the larger celebrations. Costume is the colourful Haryana women's ghagra-choli with the bright dupatta and the silver jewellery, with the women in coordinated outfits so the visual rhythm of the dance aligns with the music.