Dances form a vital element in the zest and joy of living of Arunachali tribal. They dance on important rituals, during festivals and also for recreational reasons. They vary from highly stylised religious dance dramas of the Buddhists to the martial steps and colourful performances. Ponung dance is the famous folk dance of Adi tribal people. This is a dance performed by women alone. The purpose of this festival is to ask for a good harvest and welfare of the village community. This dance is performed on all-important & auspicious occasions. Among the Adis dance had evolved almost into an art form for entertainment and recreation. The 'Phoning' dance of Adis is performed by teams of young girls in perfect rhythmic unison. Similar group dance in colourful costumes are performed by Nishis and Tagins of Upper and Lower Subansiri Districts.Adi village has a rich cultural life. The tribal people are famous for their Ponung that is dancing with the accompaniment of songs. A group of girls dance in a circle holding each other by stretching their hands over each others shoulders while the leader-usually a man called the Miri - dances and sings in the centre-holding aloft and shaking a sword like musical instrument called 'Yoksha'. First he sings a line and then it is repeated in chorus by the maidens rhythmically in circle at a low pace. On all important occasions ponung is arranged.This footage is part of the professionally-shot stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and Digital Betacam. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com.