Dance is one of the fundamental parts of the Romani people's lives. Their circular movements and swirling skirts, accompanied by hand-clapping that makes life feel like a constant celebration, have always stood out.
Just like their music, which is based on the tradition of storytelling, the steps, movements, and rhythms evoke the journey with its adventures and misfortunes, marking places and influences: a history of feet, often bare, writing on the dust of the world and immediately erasing it.
A long wandering, lasting almost a thousand years in total, which can be reconstructed through Gypsy dances, starting from India with the ancient Kathak and in Spain where it flourishes as Flamenco, passing through Persia, Turkey where it becomes belly dance, and the Balkans.
Kathak derives from the Sanskrit word Katha, meaning story, and the dance originates from the storytellers of North India, known as narrators, or Kathakars.
The dances developed from Kathak retain an original characteristic: musical accompaniment is often joined by singing, with the function of narrating a story: sometimes epic, dramatic, or religious.
There are many similarities between Kathak, Gypsy dance, and Flamenco, which developed among the Gypsies of Spain, with the rhythmic foundation primarily provided by hand-clapping and foot percussion.
