Every weekend, Jitendra puts away his paint-stained workman’s clothes and sets off for his village Piyari in Cholapur block. There, the 25-year-old painter slips into his bright pink lehenga and performs the Godau dance. The dance is traditionally performed by men from the Gond tribal community. Here, the dancers sway to the beats of a dafla, with their hands tied behind their backs.

And it’s not only Jitendra who is a regular at these ‘weekend shows’. Hundreds of workers from Varanasi, Chandauli and Mirzapur meet every weekend in their villages—Purey Gosainpur, Choubeypur, Hadideeha and others—and perform rare folk art forms, in an effort to not just entertain themselves, but also to keep these forms alive.

Recently, Dr Luvkush Dwivedi, regional cultural officer of Uttar Pradesh’s culture department, and his two-member team were doing a survey of folk performers in Varanasi division when they came across these weekend performers. Dwivedi said that in two districts alone, they had mapped 15 folk forms and 700 performers. “I was surprised to know about these weekend performances. Dances like Godau and songs like the Dhunmuniya Kajri, which unlike the traditional kajri is sung by men, were forms that were not heard of. But now, we are trying to ensure that these forms are presented to a larger audience,” he says.

Dwivedi’s efforts have ensured that these weekend folk performers have mikes and speakers installed and that they get to travel to neighbouring villages in teams. “These weekend performances are infusing life into some rare folk arts,” says Dwivedi.

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