Dollu Kunitha

An electric folk dance form, Dollu refers to the drum and Kunitha means dance in Kannada. Originally this was a very popular entertainment for village folks, in the days when television did not exist. Every hamlet or village had a Dollu Kunitha; most have one even today. A team consists of 12-14 dancers with one central singer-cum-director who has one metal instrument that he uses to set rhythm. Over the years, Dollu Kunitha has become a revered folk dance in Karnataka. Every official function, any big occasion, a Dollu team is called. When you visit the Sharavathy, you must experience a Dollu performance; it’s a must. When you see pictures, it might seem like any other dance, but the energy it generates is electric. The beat of the drum, the calls of the dancers, the rhetoric it generates and the setting against which it is performed (mostly in large grounds by the side of the village or a harvested paddy field so that the gathering may sit around in a circle comfortably. The beat reverberates across the valleys; sometimes you can hear the drum from very far, giving a lilting effect to the surrounding. If you stay with a local family, or at one of the campsites, you may request for a Dollu performance. They charge extra if it is on demand otherwise during fairs and festivals they perform without any extra chanrges. Typically it is performed by the men; but one or two teams around Sagar are all women teams. It’s fascinating, the energy, the changing rhythm and the ambience as a whole.