Kikli: a paired dance-game and its songs

Two partners coordinate the movement

Manmohan Singh Daun and Amandeep Kaur’s encyclopedia entry describes kikli as both a dance-song and a game. Two partners face one another, clasp hands and turn together, leaning their bodies back while coordinating their feet and grip. Singing accompanies the whirling. The account places the activity in courtyards and shared gathering spaces, where several pairs can participate. Its description makes mutual timing central: the partners sustain a moving relationship.[1]

The song repertoire can change

The entry discusses short songs whose subjects include parents, brothers, sisters-in-law and other relatives. Songs can follow one another, and singing responds to the movement’s pace. The authors also point to local variations. Their examples give evidence of a repertoire, rather than a requirement that every pair sing one compulsory text.[1]

The authors identify newly written kikli poems, naming Maan Singh Hakir’s collection and presenting verses with an educational theme. A familiar dance-song pattern can therefore accommodate new writing. A remembered opening does not by itself date every following line. These literary examples also distinguish the circulation of an activity from the authorship of a particular version of its words.[1]

Participation and presentation

In his 2004 music survey, Gibb Schreffler places Kikali among game songs within amateur, participatory music. The classification connects its whirling with people singing for themselves and one another in social activity, rather than defining it through professional stage presentation.[2]

An undated Sadda Pind brochure includes kikli in a cultural programme alongside bhangra, giddha and jhumar. The operator describes a recreated Punjabi village offering performances, songs and opportunities for visitors to participate. This records another setting for presenting the form, with a programme and visitors. It supplies evidence of the venue’s own description, without establishing that a visitor demonstration reproduces every feature of courtyard play.[3]