Our specialism
कथा कहे सो कथक — जो कथा कहे, वही कथक
Kathak.
North India's classical storytelling dance, and the form Shubh Sanskar was founded to teach. Taught in order, without shortcuts, to children, teenagers and adults starting from nothing.
A dance that began as storytelling.
The word Kathak comes from katha, a story. The earliest Kathak performers were travelling storytellers in the temples of North India who narrated episodes from the epics using gesture, expression and rhythm. Dance was how they held an audience.
When the form moved into the Mughal courts it gained the speed, the intricate footwork and the spins it is famous for today — but it never lost the narrative half. A Kathak dancer who can execute a hundred chakkar and cannot hold a room through a piece of abhinaya has learned only half of it.
That balance is what we teach. Roughly half of a student’s time here goes on rhythm and footwork, and half on expression, storytelling and the discipline of reciting what you are about to dance.
Kathak is also, quietly, one of the most demanding physical practices a child can take up. The footwork builds ankle and calf strength; holding a stance for a full composition builds a back; and counting a sixteen-beat cycle while your feet do something against it builds a kind of concentration that shows up in other parts of a student’s life.
The order matters more than the pace.
There is no fixed number of months between stages. A student moves on when the stage they are in is genuinely secure, which for some is faster than the batch around them and for some is slower. Nobody is held back to keep a group tidy, and nobody is advanced to keep a parent happy.
Year one
प्रथम वर्ष
Standing still, and then moving
- Posture — the Kathak stance, and why it is not a ballet stance
- Tatkar at slow tempo, on the flat of the foot
- Counting a taal out loud before dancing to it
- Basic hastak — the arm and hand positions everything is built from
Years two to three
मध्यम स्तर
Rhythm, and the first spins
- Layakari — the same footwork at double and quadruple tempo
- Chakkar introduced slowly, with spotting and a strict progression
- Tukra and toda — short rhythmic compositions
- Ghungroo, once the ankles are ready for them
Advanced
उच्च स्तर
Storytelling, and a repertoire
- Abhinaya — narrating through the face, the eyes and the body
- Padhant — reciting the bols you are about to dance
- Longer compositions: aamad, paran, chakkardar
- Performance repertoire and stage work with the senior group
Why your child is not wearing ghungroo yet.
Ghungroo are the most visible part of Kathak, and the part every new student wants immediately. We introduce them late, and deliberately.
A full set weighs between half and one and a half kilograms per ankle. Strapped onto a student whose calves and ankles are not yet conditioned, and used for the repetitive striking that tatkar requires, they cause exactly the injuries you would expect. They also mask sloppy footwork: bells make noise whether or not the foot landed correctly, and a student who learns with that cover often never learns to hear their own feet.
So students spend their early months barefoot and silent, being corrected on sound they make with the floor alone. When the ghungroo go on, they go on to an ankle that can carry them and a foot that already knows what it is doing.
Words you will hear in class.
Tatkar तत्कार
The foundational flat-footed footwork pattern. Everything in Kathak is built on it, and it is where every student begins.
Taal ताल
The rhythmic cycle. Teentaal, of sixteen beats, is the one most students learn first.
Bol बोल
The spoken syllables of a rhythm — "ta thei thei tat". Dancers recite them as well as dance them.
Chakkar चक्कर
The spin. Kathak is known for them, and they are taught last of the movement skills, not first.
Abhinaya अभिनय
Expression and storytelling — the half of Kathak that has nothing to do with speed.
Ghungroo घुंघरू
The ankle bells. Between 50 and 200 per ankle, and heavy. They are earned, not issued.
