Warli Dance

Understand

Where Warli Dance comes from

The Warli (or Varli) are one of the largest tribal communities of Maharashtra, concentrated in the North Sahyadri Range — the districts of Dahanu, Talasari, Jawhar, Palghar and Mokhada, just north and east of Mumbai. The Warli are best known today for their distinctive white-on-red-brown wall paintings (using rice paste on mud walls), which were brought to wider public attention from the 1970s by the artist Jivya Soma Mashe. Warli dance is the community's collective body art — a circle dance performed to the tarpa wind-instrument, which is itself a key motif in Warli painting.

How it's practiced

Warli dance is performed by men and women in a large circle, holding hands and dancing in coordinated steps to the sustained drone of the tarpa (a single-reed wind instrument with two bamboo pipes attached to a bottle-gourd wind-chest) and the dhol drum. The dance typically begins at sunset and runs through the night into dawn, with the musicians playing compositions that bless the village harvest and bring peace and joy to the community. The traditional period of performance runs from the harvest in September to Diwali in October-November, though it is also performed at Holi and at weddings. Costume is the everyday dress of the Warli community, ornamented with traditional silver jewellery and beaded headgear.