The folk dances of India are very old, but the prestige associated with them is new. Now, these dances form the most colourful part of India’s Republic Day parade. These dances have now travelled from rural to urban areas. The dancers from the Himalayan regions sway and bend and thus recreate the vast and undulating ranges of the Himalayas. The agitated movements and abrupt changes of posture with the rhythms in the folk dances of Assam signify violent storms and the uprooting of trees. The tense and watchful attitudes in the dances of the Nagas and the Gonds tribes denote the perils of the jungle. The dances of the fishermen of Bombay suggest the roaring, mounting waves of the sea. The folk dances of the people in North India impart a sense of peace and harmony.