Chhej - Dance of Unity
Chhej [Sindhi Folk Dance]
On the Cheti Chand – Sindhi New Year day – you might have seen that with the procession of Behrana of Sindhi Deity Jhulelal, or during a social celebration of Sindhi community and even during some ritual of Sindhi marriage ceremony, a group of Sindhis with same sized small wooden sticks in hand presents a group dance. This group dance form is
Sindhi Folk Dance Chhej.
Chhej [Sindhi Folk Dance]:
The traditional group dance of Sindhi community – Chhej is group dance performance, in which dancers with wooden peace’s [of same size] Donka or Donkala in both hands performing by making a circle.
Usually, a Chhej group consist of 6-8 dancers. Many a times lead dancer, while performance goes to center of circle and perform even by seating or laying down on earth. Sometimes besides the lead dancer one more pair also perform at center but this happens only if group have 10 or more dancers.
Presently Chhej is fading up from life of common Sindhi just because of its similarity with Garba Dance and highly effective way promotion of Garba. This is also due to effect of Garba that in Chhej also the lead dancer performs without Donkala in hands. This change is resulting in the loss of charm of Chhej.
Looking at Chhej purely as exhibition of Sindhi folk dance is not fully correct as Chhej is reflecting the life style of Sindhi community and teaches the importance of co-ordination for life. Chhej is partners group dance but the partner of dancer changes during performance as for one step dancers’ partner is dancer to his left and on next step partner will be dance on right side, this means every dancer need to create effective coordination with fellow dancers.
This becomes more complicated when the lead dancer goes to center or comes back to normal position. By this partner change Chhej dancers learns & understand value & importance of coordination. In the Chhej the number of dancers is always an even number because Chhej is group dance of pairs. In sindhi even number means Badhi Angu and Badhi is also used for unity so this is quite correct to call Chhej – Dance of Unity [Badhi Jo Nachu]. This is the unity and coordination of dancers which is making Chhej such beautiful performance.
Difference in Chhej and Garba
The circle is the main difference between Chhej and Garba. The comparatively larger circle of Chhej does not reduce even if lead dancer is performing at center. Chhej is never performed without Donkala in hands but one can do Garba without wooden sticks only with movement of hands. Collision of Donkala is important in Chhej and not only the speed of dance but frequency of this collision is much higher in Chhej when compared with Garba. Similarly, more coordination between the hand & feet movement and music is more essential for Chhej.
Why Garba is so popular and Chhej not
During the Navratara festival Gujarat have grand & glamourous Garba Utsav, naturally youth get attracted with these grand celebrations. In the Bollywood films also Garba is picturized in eye catching and glamourous style.
Sindhi community in India is without a Sindhi language state so such grand celebration for Chhej is not possible. Grand arrangement of Garba Utsav and glamourous presentation in Hindi films has brought a few changes in Chhej and made it more alike the Garba. Glimpses of Ghoomar dance of Rajasthan are also visible in Chhej of recent times.