Dancing queen of Udaipur balances 10 pots while performing 'bhavai'

For Bagore ki Haveli, located on the banks of Lake Pichola, Udaipur, where one can hear the plaintive strains of "Padharo mhare des" coaxed out of the Ravanhatha floating on the evening air, 7pm is a busy time. From 7pm to 8pm, the 18th-century palace on Gangori Ghat plays host to the Dharohar Folk Dance Show, curated from all parts of Rajasthan, in association with West Zone Cultural Centre. Tourists gather in the spacious courtyard. As twilight falls over the Haveli, songs from the desert fill the air along with the beat of the pakhwaj and dholak. Women dance with pots of fire on their heads and strike yoga poses, a puppeteer performs hilarious tricks with traditional wooden puppets... Each act is unique and arresting.

However, the finale takes the cake. Seema Rathod steps onto the stage with three giant brass matkas on her head and has the crowd wrapped around her finger. She dances on a pile of coins and picks up items from the floor with her mouth, even as she starts to add the number of matkas on her head. The three matkas become five and so on, till she reaches 10!

The dance form, bhavai, is a folk dance that hails from the western part of the state. Since these arid lands have an extreme lack of water, women walk miles with four or five pots balanced on their heads to gather water. With time, this turned into a dance form, passed down from mother to daughter through generations.

Rathod has taken this dance to the next level with 10 pots, and her stunts. "My mother taught me this dance when I was very little," she reminisces. "I wanted to take it further and practiced until I could use more and more matkas."
Though she started out light, now, her graceful neck takes the weight of 7kgs in brass pots. "Till date, I've never let a single one fall," she says, proudly.

Founder director of Dharohar, Deepak Dixit explains that children pick up and hone the art form from a young age, with no formal practice hours. "It is like a game for them," he smiles. "Later, when they start performing onstage, I give them some lessons on stage presence and such. But otherwise, it comes naturally to them."

Hailing from Pali Jila in the Marwar region, 35-year-old Rathod is now taking the dance to the next generation. Aware that bhavai, like many of India's traditional dances, is dying, she says that cultivating an interest in youth is key to keeping it alive. "My 13-year-old daughter is learning now and enjoys dancing as much as I do."

Rathod has been a part of the Dharohar show for nearly two decades, performing seven days a week, when she is not touring with troupes. Not only has she performed all over India, but also she's taken her craft to international shores. "I've performed in Australia, USA and France among other countries," she says, adding, "but this stage in Bagore is the best stage of them all.