Joint Issues : India - Portugal

Stamp Design/Theme: Dandiya Dance of India and Pauliteiros Dance of Portugal.
Occasion: To Celebrate Diplomatic relations between India and Portugal.

India:
Issue Date: 07.01.2017
Set of two Stamps, Miniature Sheet
Denomination: Rs. 5 and Rs. 25, Miniature Sheet Rs. 30

Portugal
Issue Date: 07.01.2017
Set of two Stamps, Miniature Sheet
Denomination: c0.47 and c.080, Miniature Sheet Price: c1.27

Dandiya dance is the most popular traditional folk dance form of Gujarat. It is a special feature of the Navratri festival. Dandiya is a dance form usually performed in a group, by both men and women. The special feature of the Dandiya dance is the colourful attire worn by the dancers and the colourful sticks carried by them. The wooden sticks are used as prop and are beautifully decorated. Dandiya dance or Raas is also associated with scenes of Holi, and lila of Krishna and Radha at Vrindavan.

The Portuguese stick dance known as dança dos paulitos or Pauliteiros. Male stick dancers from North Eastern Portugal are called “Pauliteiros” – a word that derives from “paulito” (small stick). The stick dance of binary metrum is called dança dos paus, dança dos paulitos, dança dos Pauliteiros and, in Mirandês language, la dança and dança de palotes. The dance is characterized by the use of two sticks that the dancers hit to the rhythm of the music played by the gaiteiros, a musical group composed by gaita-de-foles (bagpipe), caixa (small drum) and bombo (big drum), or by the so called tamborileiro, i. e. the individual that plays tamboril (drum) and fraita (three-holed pastoral flute) at the same time. It is performed by eight men in a specific costume, either comprising white embroidered skirts, woolen socks, decorated vests (coletes) and hats, or black trousers, white shirts, black vests and decorated hats.