“Kathak in Sanscrit means “the one who tells a story‿ (the first written mentioning of that word is in Mahabharata). Originally that tradition developed as the art of story-telling. There were “kathaks‿ – vagrant artists (men only) who were travelling from village to village giving performances that consisted of stories depicting different events from gods and heroes lives, poetry, dance elements and music. Gradually they became attached to the temples and settled there finally, performing on various ocassions. Then that art began to differentiate, and as a result there was folk drama (putting accent on stories) and dance (putting accent on movements that became more and more symbolic), actually Kathak. Further development of Kathak is connected with Vishnuism: the dance became a means for expressing the ideas of Vishnuistic philosophy, and so the dancer became a sort of mediator between God and human being. Besides, when Kathak turned into temple art, women also started to perform it. During the Moslem rule the essence of that dance changed a lot. It became secular as the Moslem rulers regarded it just as a form of entertainment represented at court, and also absorbed elements of Persian dance. The dancers left Hindu temples and settled at courts; the preference was given to pretty female dancers, and soon they lost their high status and became courtesans (tawaif). Only in the beginning of 20th century Kathak started to revive, mostly due to the efforts of Madame Menaka (Lila Sokhey), who in 1930-ies choreographed various dance-dramas in Kathak style. As a result, Kathak nowadays represents a synthesis of spiritual and secular. There are 3 basic schools of Kathak – Lakhnau gharana (“gharana‿ means “school‿), Jaipur gharana and – not so widespread – Banaras gharana (Lakhnau, Banaras and Jaipur are the cities in India). Kathak is very closely linked with the tradition of North Indian classical music. The dancer must know the talas (or taals) – rhythmical structures; the most popular taal in Kathak is tin-taal, consisting of 16 matras (beats). The taal – or rather a composition in definite taal played on tabla (a pair of drums, the main accompanying instrument for Kathak) – gives a basis for the dancer’s footwork. Originally the subject of the dances was religious; though under the Moslem influence new genres appeared – thumri, ghazal, that are lyrical songs where the relationships between man and woman are depicted. Kathak is danced on straight legs; the main elements of nritta are footwork (tatkar) where the dancer repeats the same rhythmical combinations that are played by tabla-player and different variations of it in different speed; then – hands movements (chakra hastas – gentle smooth movements and rekha hastas – sharp movements). One of the main elements are chakkars – multiple turns. It all gives an impression of strength and gentleness unity. The combinations of technical elements are tukras, toras, parans etc. Abhinaya in Kathak is very subtle and refined and not so expressive as in Bharatnatyam or Kuchipudi. The costume in Kathak has 2 variants. Hindu variant is lehnga (long skirt), choli (short blouse), churidars (tight trousers to wear under the skirt) and dupata (scarf covering chest and back). Moslem variant is represented by a special dress – angarka – with a fluffy skirt a bit lower than the knees, the same churidars and dupata that covers shoulders, chest and head. The male dancer usually wears kurta pajama – long shirt and trousers. All the dancers wear ghungru – small metal bells, from 100 up to 200 on each leg.