Two women dancing

The image of two women dancing—with hands clasped, eyes locked, knees bent, and bodies starting to turn away from each other while suspended in the air—is often reproduced in northern Indian painting. These women are often identified as kathak dancers, likely based on their dress. Kathak, a style of dance that fused Hindu mythological themes and Islamic culture, gained prominence in northern India from the fifteenth century and is often associated with the court milieu. Combining the arts of storytelling with dance drama, kathak is a celebratory dance that explores divine love, music, and poetry mainly through hand, eye, and foot movements and expressions. Producing and circulating images of these dancers likely spoke to the shared and wide-reaching enjoyment of the form—and of observing the feminine body in motion.