Dappan Koothu (also known as Dappanguthu, or simply koothu) is a folk dance and music genre with an emphasis on percussion performed in states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, India. It has become one of several popular genres employed in film music, mainly in Kannada and Tamil cinema.Unlike classical Indian dances such as yakshagana, bharatnatyam or kathakali, koothu is relatively informal in that it has no structured, repeated steps and dancers do not learn through formal dance classes.