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Teaching artist Deepa Mani demonstrates how to bring facial expressions, hand gestures, and footwork together while teaching a few basic postures used in classical Indian dance. 

Vocabulary You Will Learn:

• Bharatanatyam—The oldest form of Indian classical dance. When translated into English, Bharatanatyam signifies the combination of expression, rhythm, music, and dance.
• Bhava—The conveying of meaning through facial expressions.
• Raga—The melody used in Bharatanatyam, intended to evoke emotion from the audience.
• Tala—Rhythmic groupings of beats used in Bharatanatyam. Tala is independent of the music it accompanies.
• Natya—The combination of bhava, raga, and tala, meaning to tell a story through dance. 
• Salutation—A way of offering prayer and greetings, and seeking blessings from the guru and teacher. Typically done at the beginning and end of Bharatanatyam lessons.
• Posture—A frozen position of the body that provides balance and alignment.
• Adavu—A basic step, or rhythmic unit, of dance in Bharatanatyam.
• Samapadam—A posture where the dancer stands with feet together and hands on the waist.
• Aramandi—A posture where the dancer stands with heels together and toes pointing out while squatting halfway, creating a diamond shape with the legs. Hands should be on the waist.
• Thattavadu—An adavu series meaning “striking steps,” involving both samapadam and aramandi.

Materials You Will Need:

• Nothing—just yourself!

How to Create Your Own Bharatanatyam Dance

1. The first posture in the dance is called samapadam, or “equal feet.” In this posture, you will stand with feet together and hands at the waist.
2. Next, you’ll learn the aramandi posture. In this posture, you’ll stand with heels together and toes pointing out while squatting down halfway, creating a diamond shape with the legs. Your hands should be at your waist. 
3. Now you’ll use these basic postures to learn some adavus, or dance steps. The series of adavus you’ll be learning is called thattavadu, or “striking steps.” To begin, stand in samapadam posture, and then squat down in aramandi. 
4. Next, begin striking each foot in succession, beginning with your right foot. The tala for this adavu is “theia thei,” so you can chant the word “theia” when you strike the right foot and the word “thei” when you strike the left foot to keep the rhythm. 
5. Once you have that down, you can try this adavu with a faster tempo!

6. For the next adavu, you will once again begin in samapadam and then squat in aramandi. But instead of striking each foot once before alternating, you will now strike each foot twice. So, you will stomp the right foot on both “theia” and “thei” before switching to the left foot and doing the same.
7. Once again, you can try a faster tempo once you have the step down!

In this video, Deepa teaches us a basic Bharatanatyam dance that includes several different postures and adavus, or dance steps. If you want to go even further, think about these questions: 

• At the end of the video, Deepa encourages us to experiment with different tempos or speeds as we perform the dance. How does performing the adavus at different tempos change the way the dance looks and feels?
• If you would like to learn the salutations typically done before and after Bharatanatyam, you can see those at around 2:05 and 7:45 in the video. What do you think the significance of offering salutations before and after dance lessons is? 
• Bharatanatyam is typically used to tell a story through dance. What story could this dance be telling? What steps could you add to the dance to continue to tell this story?
• Notice the way Deepa uses facial expressions to communicate meaning while she dances. How can using different facial expressions while you dance be part of the story you are telling? Experiment with different expressions to see how that impacts the dance, and the story behind the dance.

Accessibility

Don’t forget that you can turn on “Closed Captioning” to view the YouTube video with English captions.

More about the Teaching Artist

Deepa Mani (she/her) is an established Indian classical and contemporary dancer. She is also the founder and artistic director of the Chandralaya School of Dance in Melbourne, Australia, where she and her team take pleasure in teaching a traditional art form to both kids and adults. Through her virtual work, Deepa introduces viewers to Bharatanatyam, a beautiful Indian classical art with a rich heritage. 

Kennedy Center Education Digital Learning

Eric Friedman 
Director, Digital Learning

Kenny Neal 
Manager, Digital Education Resources

Tiffany A. Bryant 
Manager, Operations and Audience Engagement

JoDee Scissors 
Content Specialist, Digital Learning

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