Bharatnatyam Dance Essay

Nrutharatnavali-jayapasena One does not know to sing; cannot play on the mrudangam; no knowledge in the languages other than one’s own mother-tongue, with which one could explain the meanings of a song in such other languages; reciting the rhythmic solfeggio on the stage, composed by some other naţţuvanār or a mrudangam player; no knowledge in the grammar of Nrutta and/or Abhinaya. Such a person, wielding the cymbals on the stage cannot be deemed as a true Naţţuvanār. It would be befitting to call him only as a ‘Taṭṭuvanār’! Unfortunately, today, we find many such Taṭṭuvanārs. The art of Bharatanāţya has extended its wings throughout the globe. The credit for the same is due, half the total share, to the great Nāţyāchāryas, who were

Bharatnatyam is considered to be about 2000 years old and it follows the principles of Natya Shastra. In this dance form the Bharatnatyam dancers make considerable use of hand-and-eye movements to express different emotions and gestures. Bharatnatyam is a term derived from the four most important elements of dance. The Bharatnatyam dancers wear a lovely costume. The original Bharatnatyam costume did not cover most of the dancers` bodies and severely restricted the dance movements. However, with passing time several varieties of Bharatnatyam costumes have come up. The modern costumes of the Bharatnatyam dancers project the dancer`s sukshma sharira in the material

With the passage of time, this dance style is performed on stage across the nation. Originally performed only by female temple dancers, Bharatnatyam fell into disrepute but it was revived in its original purity during the late 19th century. One of the most eminent Bharatnatyam dancers, who have immensely contributed to the development of Bharatnatyam, was E Krishna Iyer of Chennai. He conducted the first All India Music Conference in Madras in 1927. As a result of the conference, The Music Academy was born in 1928. He served as the secretary of this academy for almost a decade. Some of the eminent proponents of Bharatnatyam are Pandanallur Jayalakshmi, Guru Meenakshisundaram Pillai, Pandanallor Arunachala Nattuvanar, Muthukumar Nattuvanr, Chokkalinga Nattuvanar, Thiruvadimarudhur Kuppayya Nattuvanar, Kdappa Nattuvanar, Tanjore Kittappa, Karaikal Dandayudhapani, Pakeer swami nattuvanr, Kalyana Sundaram, kannuswami Nattuvanar, papanasan Vadivelu Nattuvanar,Tanjore Pachappa kesa Nattuvanar Mrinalini Sarabhai, Jeevaratnam, Dance Queen Balasaraswathi, Smt. Rukhmini Devi Arundale, Ram gopal, Dr Padmasubramanyam, C.V Chandrashekarl and so on. To have a picture of bharatanatyam and its development the present study approached a fourfold division. I have segregated the entailed history and modes of performance in to fourcategories each in accordance to its performance