Indian Classical Dance

Indian classical dance is a dance style that is the national dance of India Bharatanatyam. Bharatanatyam is a classical dance the originates from Tamil Nadu, a state in South India and is accompanied by traditional Tamil music. This dance is an art of communicating the emotions through dance such as laughter and sadness and so forth. The name Bharatanatyam translates to a combination of three elements: Bhavanai (means expression), Ragam (meaning music) and Talam (rhythm).

As this dance style is based on the different human emotions. I will demonstrate through images the nine human emotions that this form of dance is based around. These are: love, peace or tranquility, laughter , kind-heartedness or compassion, courage, anger, fear, disgust and surprise. Not only the emotions Bharatanatyam also deals with many hand gestures with ample of meanings to that, which i'm going to explain through some pictorial representations and the meanings for the same.

image source: Toorpaqets Indian Traditional Dance
http://www.toorpaqets.com/Natya%20_Shastra.jpg

Why I Chose Dance as My Blog!!!

As I was brought up in a village in South India I remember my granny cooking up colourful spicy feasts. Feasts so sumptuous and exploding with flavour, flavours that were different to any other village in India. You may be wondering, what on earth has my granny's Indian feasts in my home village got to do with dance? While my granny would cook with many pots and pans she would make clinking noises like 'tink tink tink' or 'sizzzle pow!' then i noticed something amazing. My feet would start tapping to her cooking sounds! My granny would make music with her pots and pans and I would look down as a child and see my feet going crazy dancing to the beat!

I also grew up watching Bollywood and Tamil films where my favourite film heros would do spectacular dance numbers. I knew from that young age as a child in the villlage in my hometown that all I wanted to do was DANCE! I danced my way through my teenage years and then in my university undergraduate degree in India I joined dance competitions and became a dance teacher in India. It was my absolute passion!

This blog is to continue my passion for dance and to share with you my favourite dance numbers which are so inspiring. I will then teach through guided step by step photographs of Indian classical dance.