Thiruvananthapuram: Forget 'Kathakali' or 'Theyyam', the traditional art forms of Kerala.

Move over to 'Bhangra', 'Dandia' and tribal dance forms of the North East and say encore.

That is what is happening at the National Youth Festival now underway in Thiruvananthapuram.

Yes! Kerala artistes at the festival had to literally take a backseat on many occasions as the local audience, exposed to such a wide variety of action-packed North Indian flavour for the first time, lapped it all up, eagerly.

Karanbeer Singh, Kamardeep Singh and Charanjeet Singh, members of the 45-strong Chandigarh team are already billed as Daler Mehndi clones after they were "forced to dance to the tunes of the crowds".

"We had come to perform our traditional 'Bhangra' and ended up dancing to 'shawa shawa', 'hayo rabba' and other 'balle balle' numbers on public demand," they said reacting to the unexpected response. Many local dance groups have already accepted them as their tutors.

Similar was the experience of Gujarati folk dance team led by Ruchi Foflia, who set the stage afire with their 'Mewasi' tribal dance. "Dil mange more" the crowds cried and they were not spared till they performed some of Falguni Pathak's latest 'Dandia' numbers.

Though the major part of the festival was competitive, it was the non-competitive section, meant to introduce some dance forms, which attracted curiosity during the four-day event.

The popular among them were the 'Dumbal' (Kashmir), 'Bihu' (Assam), 'Choliya' (UP and Uttaranchal), 'Dandaria' (Andhra Pradesh), 'Garba' (Gujarat), 'Gidda' (Punjab) and 'Ka Belia' (Rajasthan).

Keralites also realised that a marriage in Northern and Western India is not merely tying of 'mangalsutra' and a sumptuous feast, but an event triggering an array of cultural expressions as was depicted by 'Katchi Godi' (Gujarat), 'Kinari' (Himachal Pradesh), 'Riang' (Uttaranchal) and 'Deevli' (Kashmir).

But the theme that earned the biggest round of applause was 'Lur' by Haryana girls, where friends of a newly married joke with her on her first visit to her parents' house after getting married.

The coastal city also loved the fisher folk dances presented by the teams from Daman and Diu, Goa and Orissa.

"We are thoroughly enjoying performing here and the response is highly encouraging and motivating," said Daman and Diu team captain Jayesh Damania, who impressed with his versatile performance in 'Machhi' (fisher-folk), 'Tur' (marriage) and 'Ghor' (harvest dance).

PTI