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What is Bharatanatyam?

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In these clips and performance, the dancers from Ragamala Dance explain the structure, parts, and techniques of Bharatanatyam and show you how they work in performance. 

Watch for …

• the traditional costumes of handwoven silk (called saris), jewelry, dramatic eye makeup, and red coloring on hands and feet, which better highlights their movements and gestures
• the half-seated position (with legs bent and knees and feet pointed outward) from which many movements start in Bharatanatyam
• how the dancers become different characters

Listen for …

• the variety of rhythms created by the music and the stamping of feet
• the different styles of sounds that can be created from the sitar’s many strings being strummed together
• how the cello sounds close in tone to the human voice

Think about …

• how Bharatanatyam compares with other styles of dance you know
• how you would describe Indian music to a friend

Dig Deeper

Key to Bharatanatyam...

is the music, and for Ragamala Dance, this is no exception. In this performance, look and listen for 

• Lalit Subramanian, a vocalist trained in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) style of music. 
• Rajna Swaminathan, who plays a two-headed South Indian drum called a mridangam, and is one of only a few female players of this drum in the world.
• Her sister, Anjna, plays the South Indian violin. Rajna and Anjna are known for their performances in the U.S. and India, although they are only 18 and 20 years old.

For centuries, there was a clear divide between music from India (East) and music from Europe and North America (West). Classic Indian music—like what you’ll hear during the dancing—features these characteristics that distinguish it from classic Western music:

• a strong melody
• a steady note (drone) rather than harmony
• different groups of notes and many rhythm patterns
• improvisation
• different instruments tuned differently

Building Musical Bridges

Like dance, music is evolving as musicians build on tradition to create new patterns and sounds. Pioneering musicians (and husband and wife duo) Shubhendra Rao and Saskia Rao-de Haas demonstrate some of these new directions, starting with the unusual instrument pairing of sitar (si-TAHR) and cello—made even more unusual by the fact that the cello is an Indian cello, the only one of its kind in the world. 

About Ragamala Dance

Founded in 1992 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota,  maintains Bharatanatyam’s rich tradition while also carrying it forward into the 21st century. Its artistic directors (and mother and daughter) Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy travel to India every year to study their craft from Padma Bushan Alarmel Valli—widely considered the foremost exponent of Bharatanatyam. Fusing the ancient movement vocabulary of Bharatanatyam with contemporary ideas, they create new dances and maintain old traditions.