Mohini Attam
Mohini Attam, is a dance of an enchantress who causes havoc and destruction to the
wicked and great delight and pleasure to the good. Thus, Mohini stands for a kind of
delusion, enchantment or infatuation resulting from the vision of a dazzling beauty. This
is a dance named after this mythological beauty, because it is solo performance given by
a woman alone and reigns supreme in grace, enchantment and pure aesthetic pleasure.
It is also one of the two major dance dramas of Kerala. It is a kind of synthesis of
Kathakali, Bharata Natyam and a few folk dances of the region.
An expressional form.
This dance commences with an opening dance called Cholkettu. The dancer begins at an
average tempo but gradually gains speed with the passage of pure dance sequence leading
to the climax containing interchanging expressional and pure dance sequences to the
accompaniment of vocal and instrumental music. It presents a perfect combination of
abinaya, nritta and nritya to evoke rasa (flavor). The songs contain the theme of devine
love and the dancer interprets it with her skilled footwork, movements of the hands, and
facial expressions. It is a dance style specially marked for its grace, fluidity, simple
looking footwork and rotating rhythmic movements. Everything in this dance continues
smoothly and softly to the accompaniment of the cymbals, veena, maddala, and chenda.
The costume is usually white or off-white comprising of sari. Adornments include
various ornaments and ankle bells and garlands of jasmine in the hair.
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Dance images © Dilini Reynold. Plese don't take without permission. Thank you.
Background courtesy of Pegasus
Animation © CMR