Resources
The site from Chidambaram Dance academy has some good content on Adavus, Gestures & Costume. Check them out!
[Adavus]
[Hand Gestures]
[Movements]
[Costumes]
A great innovative way to show Adavu with pencil figures. This site shows Thatta adavu basics for new learners.
[Thatta Adavu Animation]
History of Bharatanatyam explained well by the famous Geeta Chandran.
[History of Bharatnatyam]
Great images on various Hand Gestures has been put up for Students on Noopur Dance Academy.
[Hand Gestures at Noopur Dance Academy]
A good listing of all types of gestures in Bharatanatyam.
[All Gestures at Nandanam.com]
A Select List of Books on Bharatanatyam.
[Books on Bharatanatyam]
A great write up on famous classical Indian dancers including Bharatanatyam dancers at lifestyle-india.
[Great Dancers of India]
A good writeup that gives an overview of Bharatanatyam from Rambling with Bellur.
[A for Arangetram, B for Bharatanatyam…]
A site that provides Bharatanatyam lessons in the Vazavoor style by Sangeeta Shyam and Santosh
[Online Bharathanatyam Academy]
A site that has various articles and news on Bharatanatyam.
[Bharatanatyam Bharata natyam Bharatnatyam Bharathanatyam in Chennai. ]
A Website dedicated to promoting various Art forms. It runs weekly online talent contests for the Desi community. They say “Use DynamycDesi to encourage your kids to develop their talents and get identified as The Talent of the week”.
[DynamicDesi. ]
Here a very informative article on Bhava and Rasa in dance by Gyanendrabhajpai
[Gyanendrabajpai’s Weblog. ]
Here is a site called Cyberkerala that helps all the artist to design, develop and launch their own website and get known in the world of artists. They also provide for the maintenance and promotion the site.
Dancer Anjana Rajan and Mr GS Rajan have worked on ArtIndia in providing relevant information on all kinds of Indian art. This site gives details of the artists, Gurus and their address to contact. In short its an Exhaustive Online Art Directory.
Indusladies.com-A global online community for Indian ladies. Indian ladies living around the world come here to discuss various topics, engage in a dialogue, ask questions, get help, share tips and along the way build authentic and enduring friendships.
28 responses so far ↓
that’s a nice compilation of Bharata Natyam e-resources. Thanks!
Hi Bansuri…….nice name. I thank you for the compliment.
very informative posts. lovely blog.
thanks for linking.
wish you all success.
regards
rk
There is not bad information about bhedams and hand gestures in pdf-format
http://web.mit.edu/natya/www/danceStyles/Bhedams.pdf
And here is a good article about Bharatanatyam and about gesture’s meanings:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/3155/bnatyam.html
My best wishes for u, keep it up.
papa.
Thanks for your Wishes, Papa.
Hi Anjali,
I am from Auckland and I find this site very useful. really good work. Just one question. my daughter has just started learning bharatanatyam but finds it difficult to keep her back straight. What can she do (other than practice) to get this right?
cheers
Hi Radha, ask your daughter to stand before the mirror and correct herself. You can guide her with the right posture as per the video given. It should be brought to her notice every time she bends forward. Also ask her to do Padmasana daily which involves keeping the back straight. Right practice makes one perfect. Also perfection of postures need atleast a year of practice. Its called the Angashudhi. So donot worry and let her enjoy her lessons. Radha, Thanks a lot for your kind words.
hi anjali,
I have just started to learn barathanatyam at the age of 37, I find it really interesting and your website really help me to practice better. Thanks and good luck.
Hi Jayanthi…Its nice to know that you have started learning dance. You are an inspiration to all those who hesitate to start just because of their age. Do share with us your experience while learning so that others are motivated. I would like to add your view in my FAQ page that will be posted soon. And Thanks a lot for your Kind words.
hi…ur site is fantastic…..i hav learned dance but just for 1 year….after a long gap i wud like to take it up again….can u just list out the order in which we hav to learn…..like how the sequence is….? thankyou once again….
anjali this is one of the very good work that u have done
i wud really appreciate u for this beautiful work
thankyou
and best wishes
sandhya
WOW…what an informative site…..Keep it up and God bless!
Hi Anjali,
Do not know if you remember our recent chat about my daughter Anusha (Bangalore). I would like to share with you that my daughter came first with 83 marks in her Bharatanatyam examination. Thank you for your wishes to her.
Best regards,
Ajith Kumar
Hi Anjali,
Came to know about your site thru Orkut. It is so helpful for a Bharatanatyam learner!I started learning Bharatanatyam in my 30s. Your movements are very graceful. My Guru is from Srilanka and we are settled in UK. I find lots of differences in adavus like my guru taught only 8 natta adavus. I am wondering why there are lots of variations.
Your Natta adavu videos are really great. Could you please add other adavus videos as well like Thai ha thaihi etc.
My daughter is planning to take her grade 1 exam in UK. Her guru is also from Srilanka and both our Gurus taught in the same way. We have a new guru now who wa trained in Chennai and her style is different in all the adavus. So I am wondering if the number of steps in the adavus are different in various places, how it will affect my daughter when she takes her exams.
What is authentic in the number of steps in various adavus.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Thanks,
Raymol
Hi Raymol, thanks for the appreciation. You are an inspiration to all those who hesitate to start late. All the best. Also being in UK your interest to learn this art is so strong. Hats off to your efforts. I also wish your daughter lots of luck for her life ahead. We had such a discussion earlier. Read the comments of this link. http://onlinebharatanatyam.com/2007/08/22/tatta-adavu-sixth-step/link.
I repeat…. donot worry about differences. Follow the guru. Such references should be an added learning to you. At a higher level such differences are negligible.
A excellent and very informative website good work congrats and thank you
Namaskar Suryaji, its an honor to receive such an encouraging word from a versatile dancer like you. Thanks a lot for visiting and do add in your valuable suggestions on improvement.
Anjali,
I love your site. It seems to be very helpful for learning the basics. I am 19 years old and want to learn Bharatanatyam very much. I learned for about 6 months when I was 15 but was not dedicated enough and stopped. But now I want to learn and wanted to know if you have any advice on learning at this age. How fast do you think I can progress assuming I am a fast learner? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and keep up the ogod work on your website.
Pooja
Hi Pooja, thanks for visiting and for your kind words. Coming to your question, see it should not take more than 3-4 years to learn this art assuming that you are a fast learner. For this it is advisable to join schools like Kalakshetra, Kalamandalam or Nalanda who can offer 3yrs Diploma. I donot know about the private schools do inquire about them.
Hi Anjali,
Good site. Quite informative. Apart from asamyuta and samyuta hastas, do you also have Vinayoga slokas’ mudras on your video? Am keen on going through that also. Thanks and Regards
Hi Anjali,
Excellent site, excellent lessons for parents, my daughter is learning bharatnatyam, she practices at home but now i can rectify her mistakes. what is next adavus ?? Thanks
Thanks a lot Jigisha. I wish good luck to your daughter. May she excel in every aspect of her life. The next adavu will be Tatti Metti Adavu .
i love bharatnatyam. but i never goat any oppurtunity to learn. am doing a litereture (theoritical) project on it for my college. can you please furnish me with some good information.Thanking u in anticipation……
would love to be your friend!!!!!!!!! friends????????
Anjali,
Your website is really good. I want to commend you on the work that you are doing.
I wanted to know, can you send me some links or names of DVD’s, VCD’s of the tanjore style of bharatanatyam.
Hi anjali,
I am from Pune…I am 34..haven’t found a teacher in Pune..I and my daughters would like to learnIf u have any information on the teachers in Pune please would u give it to me…
I have learnt dance almost 11 years but ne’er appeared for any exam…I would like to continue….
Hey Anjali
I just read Vidya’s ? & she is from my hometown so couldnt stop my self from sharing my Guru’s contact no with her if you dont mind
She is toooooooooooo good her name is Mrs Shumita Mahajan- cell no 9890139990
She is no 1 in Pune , very tallented & graceful dancer of Kalakshetra gharana.
Good luck with your search & h ope you will get success.
Thanks Anjali
Hi Anjali,
Your site is really awesome. I had learnt bharatanatyam for three years and then stopped. I would like to continue. Can you please suggest me some good institutes in Bangalore. And also since I am working, i would be able to attend classes only during week ends. Can you please tell me any institute which teaches during week ends and also for people like me who had learnt for some years and then stopped.
Good luck for you efforts in creating this informative website.