Rajasthani dance performance in Udaipur

The Bahratiyal Lok Kala Museum holds a Rajasthani folk dance performance with music in a stone courtyard every night at dusk. We attended one last night, and it was a gas--not too long, with interesting music and some gone dancing.

The music was was rooted with a hand-pumped harmonium (like the one I saw Allen Ginsberg play in my class in Bellingham in 1977), a tabla, other drums whose names I don't know, and a variety of cymbals and shakers.

Some of the more "Out" parts of the performance included live coals transferred from a brazier to a bowl with a guy's front teeth, a woman walking on broken glass as she balanced 9 heavy clay pots on her head and danced, and a particularly demented puppet/marionette performance where the puppet took off its head and then juggled it, rolled on it, spun it with his feet, and reattached it. Here are some photos from the show. We'll try to upload a video too--but that is always shaky due to the power spikes and brown-outs.

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