INDIAN DANCE: BHARATANATYAM

Catalog description

Bharatanatyam is typically studied as a theater dance form, and as a spiritual practice. In this class, traditional and contemporary teaching approaches are combined to introduce the participant to an overview of technical and performative aspects of the form. An example of the adjusted structure of the classes is that we begin each class with hatha yoga based stretches and dance warm ups that specifically target the kind of joint articulation that the form presupposes. We focus on the basic stance, the ardha-mandi, along with the technique of stamping as exemplified in the series of adavu, (basic combinations of hand, foot and rhythmic movement.) Following the progressive difficulty of the adavu system itself, more challenging combinations of hand and footwork will be introduced. Head and eye techniques will be introduced first in isolation then in combination. The last stage of this class involves learning a short abstract dance to music especially pre-recorded for a particular version of a dance genre and adjusted for difficulty level. This is in order to experience how the parts of the technique are integrated and to experience the state of performing. Students will be invited to perform at informal showings