Lavani

Lavani is a Marathi folk genre from Maharashtra and southern Madhya Pradesh, combining sung poetry with dance and theatrical performance, traditionally performed to the fast, powerful beats of the dholki percussion instrument. Female performers, dressed in nine-yard nauvari sarees, deliver emotionally charged and often satirical verse addressing societal, religious and political subjects, and the genre made substantial contributions to the development of Marathi folk theatre from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Lavani divides into a philosophical strand, Nirguni Lavani, and a more sensual strand, Shringari Lavani, the latter further split by performance setting into public theatrical Phadachi Lavani and intimate chamber Baithakichi Lavani.