The Story
OrganizerThe Khajuraho Dance Festival was established in 1975 by the Government of Madhya Pradesh to showcase Indian classical dance in the setting of the Khajuraho temples — a complex built by the Chandela rulers between the 10th and 12th centuries and renowned for the sculptural richness of its walls, including its many figures of dancers and musicians. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Khajuraho draws visitors from around the world, and the festival was conceived to animate this storied setting with living performance.
For roughly a week each February, the festival presents India's principal classical dance forms — Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Kathakali and others — danced by leading and rising artists. Performances have traditionally been staged in the open air before the floodlit Western Group of temples, the most celebrated cluster in the complex, creating a dialogue between the carved figures and their living counterparts. The festival is organised by Madhya Pradesh's cultural authorities, including the Ustad Alauddin Khan Sangeet Evam Kala Akademi, with MP Tourism promoting it as a flagship event.
Over five decades, the Khajuraho Dance Festival has become one of India's most prestigious classical dance platforms and a cornerstone of central India's cultural-tourism calendar. It has also broadened over time, with editions incorporating allied arts, crafts and visual-arts programming around the core dance recitals. For dancers it is a coveted stage; for audiences and cultural tourists, it is a chance to experience India's classical dance traditions amid one of the country's architectural wonders.
The Khajuraho Dance Festival's significance lies in its long-standing role as a premier national platform for Indian classical dance, and in its pioneering fusion of performance with one of the world's most celebrated heritage sites. Founded in 1975, it helped establish the template — later echoed at Konark, Hampi, Mamallapuram and elsewhere — of staging classical dance at India's great monuments.
It provides a prestigious, high-visibility stage for the full spectrum of Indian classical dance, supporting the continuity of these traditions and the careers of their exponents. Set against the Khajuraho temples, whose sculpture itself celebrates dance, the festival reinforces the deep historical connection between Indian temple art and classical performance. As a flagship of Madhya Pradesh's cultural identity and tourism, it also carries significant regional importance.
Khajuraho matters as a half-century-old institution sustaining classical dance through prestigious public performance, and as a leading example of activating heritage monuments with living culture. It keeps India's classical dance traditions before a broad audience and underpins the cultural-tourism economy of a globally recognised World Heritage destination.
The festival pioneered the heritage-site classical dance festival in India; has provided a premier national stage for classical dance for fifty years; reinforced the link between temple art and dance; and anchored Khajuraho's and Madhya Pradesh's cultural-tourism identity.
