Her steps are in tandem with the tunes of the flute. Every serpentine twist and turn of Asha Sapera’s body is proof that she is indeed the custodian of Kalbeliya, a traditional dance of Rajasthan’s gypsy community that she belongs to. “We are ghoomantar, always moving from one place to another with our camels, donkeys and dogs,” says the 32-year-old, her dark eyes flashing.
Ghoom, Hindi for ‘to move’, defines the gypsy’s art too. Both Ghoomar and Kalbeliya dances, their twin signature art forms, rely expertly and harmoniously on moving the body in circles. A Ghoomar and Kalbeliya dancer moves in rounds, lightly and repeatedly. “A fast Ghoomar dance is called Kalbeliya,” says Asha.
The folk dance of the Kalbeliya community, also known as the Sapera tribe, involves its women dancing to the rhythms from numerous native instruments such as poongi (wind instrument played by snake charmers), dufli (tambourine), morchang (harp), dholak (hand drum) and khanjari (also a tambourine), all played by men. Their sounds are sharp and distinct, mirroring the dancers’ moves that emulate a snake’s. The spins, often as fast and seemingly never ending, are guaranteed to leave the audience giddy.
The youngest in a family of seven children, Asha has been performing Kalbeliya since she was five. The art form, which has been on UNESCO’s list of the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ since 2010, has been passed on to her through generations of gypsy women. She wants to take it to the next level—international recognition. In a career spanning over a quarter-century, she has performed in over 80 countries and at major dance festivals in India and abroad.
She says, “I want the world to learn how to spin like a gypsy.” Asha’s latest performance at the 13th Jodhpur RIFF Roots Music Festival in October, where she conducted a lecture-demonstration of Kalbeliya dance, saw academics, entrepreneurs, homemakers and even a few trained Kathak and Bharatanatyam dancers in rapt attendance. “The dance has received national attention only in the past few decades,”
Asha says, giving her predecessors credit for its popularity.
One such celebrated performer was Gulabo Sapera, the first dancer from their community to turn heads with her turns and twirls. “Several decades ago, Gulabo was offered an opportunity to perform at a temple festival in Pushkar. The audience didn’t know the dance, but was stunned by the cobra-like movements and whirl of Kalbeliya,” she adds.
Asha was enchanted by the magic of the sinuous spin. She learned the technique from her mother and sisters. By the time she was 10, Asha was performing for large festival crowds. Her first international tour was in Thailand when she was 13. Today, she leads an entourage of musicians and dancers.
“I am the boss,” she jokes. The dancer is indeed the boss in Kalbeliya, since it demands the musicians follow the dancer’s movement and not the other way around. When Covid-19 hit, Asha started online classes. Her classroom suddenly filled up with Kalbeliya fans from across the world. The digital jump whetted her appetite to spread her knowledge further.
“Though I never went to school, today I can speak several languages, including English, Hindi and Marwari. For Kalbeliya dance, however much you may learn, is never sufficient,” she insists.
A turn of phrase never said better.
The Kinetic of Kalbeliya
The Kalbeliya dance is a traditional art of the rowing gypsy community in Rajasthan. Ghoomar, another dance form of the community, is performed by women wearing jewel-embedded skirts and veils in groups. Living in the remote villages of the desert state, the gypsies—also known as Ghoomar and Kalbeliya communities—would often venture into nearby forests to forage for food and fodder. Sometimes they would return with the snakes they caught during the forays.
Back in the village, they would make flutes and play them in front of the snakes, making the reptiles follow the movement of the musical instrument. Later, the snake’s movement of twirling became part of the community’s repertoire of dance forms. Thus was born Kalbeliya dance. Not only the moves, but the costume in black is also in tune with the appearance of a snake, though dancers have today begun to add more colours to their wardrobe.