Mohiniattam

मोहिनीअट्टम

The term Mohiniattam derives from Mohini and attam. The former implies a woman who lures spectators while the latter means graceful and sensuous body movements. Together, these two terms indicate that Mohinattam is a dance of enchantment. Mohinattam has devotion to god as its primary theme and the god invariably is either Vishnu, the preserver of Universe or Krishna, the lover god. There are basically two stories of Lord Vishnu in form of Mohini. The first one has him trying to distract the attention of demons from nectar of immortality while the second story depicts him trying to rescue Lord Shiva from the demon Bhasmasura.

Mohiniattam is vastly different from Kathakali as far as its dress up and make up is considered. The Mohinattam dancers dress up elegantly in a white with gold border Kasavu saree of Kerala. The hair is tied on one side as a French bun and is decorated with white jasmine flowers. The dancers move their body from one side to another in a graceful manner reminding the gentle movement of palm leaves and the flowing rivers that are seen in abundance in the state of Kerala. The dancers also makes good use of their eyes and aim to influence the mind of spectator instead of senses (remember this the dance of enchantment). The vocals that accompany the dancers are in a language that is a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam. This language is widely known as Manipravala.