GARIA DANCE
Garia is the biggest festival of Tripuri people. Lord Garia is nothing but Lord Siva, the creator of this universe and all the life form of this world. All the dance form of Indian culture is said to have derived from the Tandava Nritya of Nataraj or Lord Siva’s dance form. Similarly all the dance of Tripuri people has derived from Goria form of dance. This dance has some 108 mudras in original as stated by famous dance exponent of Tripura Smt. Padmini Chakrabarty. But now most of them are not known to Tripuri people, many of them has been forgotten, buried by the rubble of history. The dance starts from the first day of Goria puja, in the afternoon. Boys and girls young adult form a group in each village, go around dancing from house to house till all the houses are covered. When they finish their village, they also visit near by villages, and the process continues for seven days, till the last day of puja. They generally carry a symbol of Lord Garia deity; place it in the middle of court yard of house, than circle around the deity in anti clock wise. Some time light slang lyrics are used, but now a day the most of the lyrics are all devotional.
Music Instrument used are:
Kham or a traditional Indian dholak, Sumui or flute, Sarinda or Violin etc. Kham has a very important role in Goria dance, and in no dance of Tripuri kham plays so important roe than in Goria. The beat of kham is so rhythmic & appealing that makes one to tap their foot and involuntarily compels one to dance.
HOJAGIRI
Hojagiri dance is one of the famous dances of Tripura. The dance is performed on the occasion of HOJAGIRI Festivals or Laxmi puja, held in the following full moon night of Durga puja. generally after 3rd day of Dashera. The Goddess Mailuma, (Laxmi) is worshipped with full reverence and devotion on this day.
The dance is performed by only women, of about 4 to 6 member in a team. The Riang clan of Tripuri people performs this dance and they are very expert. The male members participate in singing the lyric, playing the Kham, Sumui. The women also form the team of chorus, in the singing group. The lyric are very simple but dance is unparallel with the lyric of Hojagiri dance.
The ancillary logistics required for the dance are, a BALING, which is a wide circular rice cleaning article made of cane, a pitcher, or kalash, a bottle, a house hold traditional lamp, a plain dish, a handkerchief for each performer.
One has to under go an extensive training and rehearsal for this dance. It is slow hip and waist maneuvering dance. It takes about 30 minutes to finish the sequence of Hojagiri dance. The whole of the Huk or Jhum cultivation is exhibited through this dance. To that extent it some how symbolizes like that of Hukni dance, but the rhythm and sequence are totally different. This dance is world famous and had been performed in may international folk cultural programme.
LEBANGBUMANI
Both men and women participate in the Lebang Boomani dance. The men use bamboo clappers called tokkas to set a beat while the women join them waving colorful scarves to catch the lebang. The rhythmic play of the clappers is thought to attract the lebang out of their hiding places allowing the women to catch them.The dance is accompanied by musical instruments like the flute, khamb, the percussion instrument pung and the sarinda. Women adorn themselves with silver chains and bangles and ear and nose rings made of bronze.