How to dance Dhimsa — formation, steps, and staging it

Dhimsa's best quality for a learner: it is a dance you join, not a dance you audition for. If you can hold the person next to you and keep time with a drum, you can be in the chain — that is how every dancer in the Araku hills learned it.

The formation

• Link up. Dancers stand in a line and link — arms around the next dancer's waist, or hands on shoulders, depending on the variety. The line curls into a semicircle or circle as it moves.
• The head of the chain leads. The first dancer sets the step pattern and signals the changes; everyone else follows the body in front of them. In some varieties the leader carries peacock feathers.
• The drum decides the speed. Steps are short, repeating sequences — step, close, stamp, sway — that the whole chain does in unison, accelerating as the tudumu and dappu drive harder.
• Move as one. The skill of Dhimsa is not individual flourish but staying perfectly with your neighbours — a chain that bends and swings like a single body is the whole art.

Learning it

There is no better free teacher than watching the real thing: the official video of the Bhogapuram record performance shows the posture, the linked arms and the step rhythm clearly, at every scale from close-up to aerial. Watch the dancers' feet for one minute and you will have the basic pattern. In the Araku Valley, visitors are often invited to join the end of a chain at the museum performances — the traditional way in.

Staging Dhimsa at a school or cultural event

Dhimsa is a favourite for school annual days, college cultural festivals and community events across Andhra Pradesh — it needs no soloists, scales to any group size, and looks spectacular in coordinated dress. What organisers usually get right:

• Group size: anywhere from 8 to 20 dancers works on a stage; larger groups form concentric circles, exactly as the record performance did with 433 of them.
• Dress: matching saris with a contrasting border (the record used pink with green), flowers in the hair, and traditional silver-look jewellery — see the dress page. Traditionally the dance is barefoot.
• Music: live drumming if at all possible — dappu players are widely available for events; recorded Dhimsa music works, but the dance visibly comes alive with live drums.
• Respect: Dhimsa is a living tradition of specific communities, not a generic "tribal theme". Naming the dance and the Araku region in your programme notes is both good manners and good education.

Last updated: 2026-08-04