Resham-Ka Origins and History

Today I wanted to share a little history about the Resham-Ka.

This step was created by our beloved Megha Gavin, founder of Devyani Dance Company and is found on FatChanceBellyDance® Tribal Basics Volume 7: Creative Steps and Combinations so it’s considered a part of our Modern vocabulary.

A lot of Megha’s inspiration and influence came from India. Including music, dance, textiles and jewelry. In fact, Devyani had such a connection to India and our local Indian community that we had a regular gig at an Indian restaurant and would often be invited and perform at Indian cultural festivals throughout Birmingham.

The fact that I had been studying and practicing Hindiusm and attending temple for some occasions only solidified my love when I found Devyani and FCBD®Style. When I walked into my first class and saw Megha with her bindi, salwar and mangalsutra (a necklace worn by a married Hindu woman) it just felt like everything I had been looking for.

Here we are at an Indian cultural event

Her husband, Vikas, was from India and they would travel there to visit family. I always loved volunteering to help unpack her boxes at the studio when she returned from a trip because she’d tell stories about where she bought something, why she loved it and of course that meant I’d get first choice on any new merchandise.

I was even lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks with her in India where we taught, performed, visited as many temples as we could and explored shops, culture and music.

Doing Gratitude in India with our students

But I digress….today I wanted to talk about the Resham-Ka.

In Hindi, Resham रेशम generally means ‘silk’ and Ka का means “of ”. So Resham Ka (or Resham-Ka as we use) रेशम का means “of silk”

However, when Resham is used as a woman’s name the translation is:

(Ray-shum) (n.) Name of an exotic woman, meaning 'smooth as silk'. Just like her name, Resham's moves in the bed are smooth as silk. She'll have you wrapped around her little finger before you learn to say her name.

The flicking of silk scarves that often accompanies dancing to the song Resham Ka Roomal is a fun little play on this concept.

You can find the lyrics here.

I really like Urban Dictionary’s description:

Resham is a sensitive yet sensible girl who is actually a “beauty with brains”. She is like a goddess, who is soft yet strong and has the capability to take on anything that comes her way.

Example: Ohh wow! She is Resham!

So how did this movement come about?

While Megha was living in New Orleans, she took a Rajasthani Folk Dance class with a teacher named Sunanda Nair (whom I’ve been in contact with, but has since moved on to focus on Indian Classical Dance and unfortunately is not available for an interview or class).

Of course Megha fell in love with many of the things she learned and wanted to combine her passion for FCBD®Style with her love of Rajasthani folk dance.

She recreated the movements to fit within our FCBD®Style posture and aesthetic. She presented the movements to Carolena around the time they began working together for Tribal Pura. When Carolena began working on volume 7, it made sense to add these new steps to the vocabulary to also solidify their partnership in Tribal Pura.

Keep in mind this was well before any concept of dialect came about. The Resham-ka along with the WaterPot, Sunanda and DoubleBack were the first official movements added to the vocabulary that were not created by FatChanceBellyDance®.

Since then we’ve seen dialect variations on this step like the Resham-Ka Spins, the Duet Passing combination and I’ve even seen a troupe combine the Resham Ka and the Shell Game concept.

What do you love about the Resham-Ka?