Gorgeous Giddha Girls

Giddha (Punjabi: ਗਿੱਧਾ, giddhā) is a Punjabi folk dance and very popular amongst Punjabi women. The dance is considered to be derived from a much older dance known as the ring dance and is known for it's display of feminine grace, feminine elegance and bodily elasticity.

• The dancers (women) form a circle to begin performing giddha. They all clap their hands and small couplets are sung (Punjabi: ਬੋਲੀਆਂ, bōlīāṁ) called boliyan or bolis.

• Following this, two or three of the girls come to the centre and the dance is performed.
  
• The sung boliyan, or dual-line poems or couplets, range over a variety of subjects such as the excesses committed by husbands and mothers-in-law.
  
• A salwar kameez (tunic top and loose fitting pants) or lehenga (colourful skirt) in bright colours are worn traditionally by women in this dance.
  
• Musical instruments are absent aside from a dholak (small two headed drum) which, along with clapping and clang spoons keep the rhythm. Indeed, the hand-clapping is the distinctive feature, or one of them, in the giddha.
  

• Mimicry is another element employed in this dance. The first dancer might act out the old bridegroom and the other girl acts as the young bride. or one may enact the part of a quarrel-some sister-in-law and the other a humble bride. In this way Giddha is therapeutic, allowing a forum for venting of emotions.
  
• Giddha dance also uses village life scenes of woman spinning at the cotton loom, bringing water from the well and so on, accompanied with boli and songs.

Giddha is a very lively folk dance and similar to other such dances it puts great demands on the legs. 

This vigorous  folk dance  is usually performed by  Indian ladies who dance in twos.

One girl sings the boli and when the penultimate  line is reached, the tempo of the song rises and participants begin dancing together.

In this way boliyan alternate with the dance sequence itself which continues for a  period of time.

Giddha  is stylistically simple.  Exotic features are:  the  jing-jing-jingle of the bells, thumping of the feet, beating  of the drum and the beauty of punjabi women in their striking costumes which creates an enchanting, fairy-tale atmosphere.

Giddha is very popular as it is not danced according to any 'set' or rigid  sequences; it is free-style, highly spontaneous and wonderfully creative. 

 Occasions like lohri, vashaki, and marriages  Punjabi women expressing joy, give vent to their normally repressed feelings of the  male dominated society by way of the giddha.  It is very much a 'feeling' dance for women.