This an interview by Ranjani Saigal published on Lokavani.com. While the art of Bharatanatyam dates back to over 2000 years, the tradition in its current form was reestablished only around the time of the freedom movement. Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan was the first non-devadasi girl to learn this art form and perform it on stage. She [...]

(This article is taken from Dancer Sangeeta Ishwaran’s research paper “Abhinaya in Dance –Theatre forms of south east asia”) What I felt would be relevant for the readers here is the relation between Sthayi bhava, Vibhava and the Anubhava. This is a part of the advanced theory in classical dance. In this paper, three concepts [...]

Abhinaya is the main technique used in Natya. “Abhi” means “towards” and “ni or Naya” is the root meaning to “carry”. Thus as the meaning implies the dancer through the vehicle of Abhinaya has to reach out to the spectators. It is an inseparable component of Natya. Lets see how Natya is related to Abhinaya. [...]