Yakshagana
A trip to the coastal belt would be incomplete without watching the Yakshagana - an elaborate dance-drama performance unique to Karnataka. It is a rare combination of dance, music, songs, scholarly dialogues, and colourful costumes. A celestial world unfolds before the audience as loud singing and drumming form a backdrop to dancers clad in striking costumes. Hence the name Yaksha (celestial) Gana (music.) This is a night-long event, with elaborately adorned performers dancing to the beating of drums in open-air theatres - usually village paddy fields after the winter crop has been reaped.
