Indian Classical Dances - a thread.

(I am not an expert. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

[ Bharatanatyam ]
Originated in : Tamil Nadu
The theory behind the musical notes, vocal performance and the dance movement trace back to the ancient Natya Shastra and many other Sanskrit and Tamil texts such as Abhinaya Darpana. +

Bharata Natyam is traditionally a team performance art that consists of a solo dancer, accompanied by musicians and one or more singers. The solo artist (ekaharya) is dressed in a colorful Sari, adorned with jewelry who presents a dance synchronized with Indian classical music. +

Her hand and facial gestures are codified sign language that recite a legend, spiritual ideas or a religious prayer derived from Hindu Vedic scriptures, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Puranas and historic drama texts. +

The dancer deploys turns or specific body movements to mark punctuations in the story or the entry of a different character in the play or legend being acted out through dance (Abhinaya). The footwork, body language, postures, musical notes, the tones of the vocalist, aesthetics+

and costumes integrate to express and communicate the underlying text.

It usually takes someone 4-7 years to finish the curriculum.

[ Kathak ]
Origin: traditionally attributed to the travelling bards of ancient northern India known as Kathakars or storytellers.

The earliest surviving text with Kathak roots is the Natya Shastra. +

Wandering Kathakars communicated stories from the great epics and ancient mythology through dance, songs and music. Kathak dancers tell various stories through their hand movements and extensive footwork, but most importantly through their facial expressions. +

Kathak is found in three distinct forms, called "gharanas", named after the cities where the Kathak dance tradition evolved – Jaipur, Banaras and Lucknow. While the Jaipur gharana focuses more on the foot movements, the Banaras and Lucknow gharanas focus more on +

facial expressions and graceful hand movements. The dance form emphasizes rhythmic foot movements, adorned with ghungroo, and the movement harmonized to the music. The legs and torso are generally straight, and the story is told through a developed vocabulary based on the +

gestures of arms and upper body movement, facial expressions, stage movements, bends and turns. The main focus of the dance becomes the eyes and the foot movements. +

The eyes work as a medium of communication of the story and with the eyebrows the dancer gives various facial expressions.

It usually takes 6-9 years to complete the curriculum.

[ Kathakali ]
Origin: the origins of Kathakali dance date back to the late 16th and early 17th century in India. However, its roots go back much further into ancient folk arts and classical dances in Kerala.

A Kathakali performance synthesizes music, vocal performers, +

choreography and hand and facial gestures together to express ideas. It also incorporates movements from ancient Indian martial arts and athletic traditions of South India. The traditional themes of the Kathakalī are folk mythologies, religious legends and spiritual ideas +

from the Hindu epics and the Puranas. The vocal performance has traditionally been performed in Sanskritised Malayalam. The term Kathakalī is derived from "Katha" which means "story or a conversation, or a traditional tale", and "Kali" which means "performance and art". +

The dance symbolises the eternal fight between good and evil.
The training of a Kathakali artist takes up to twelve years of full-time effort,and involves complete mastery of all the body's muscles,as well as a fundamental reshaping of the body achieved through vigorous massage.

[ Kuchipudi ]
Originated in: Andhra Pradesh

Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with its roots in the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text of Natya Shastra. It developed as a religious art linked to traveling bards, temples and spiritual beliefs. +

Kuchipudi largely developed as a Hindu god Krishna-oriented Vaishnavism tradition, and it is most closely related to Bhagavata Mela. The traditional Kuchipudi was performed by all males troupe. A dancer in a male role would be in angivastra, also known as bagalbandi and +

a dancer in a female role would wear a sari with light makeup. Kuchipudi is a team performance, with roots in Hindu religious festivals. The drama-dance involves extensive stage movements and exacting footwork, wherein the underlying drama is mimed by expressive gestures +

of hand (mudras), eye and face movements.The expressive style is through a sign language that follows the classical pan-Indian Sanskrit texts.The dance is accompanied with Carnatic music,while the recital is in Telugu language.
It usually takes 4-7 yrs to complete the curriculum.

[ Odissi ]
Originated in: Odisha

The theoretical foundations of Odissi trace to the ancient Sanskrit text Natya Shastra, its existence in antiquity evidenced by the dance poses in the sculptures of Odissi Hindu temples, and archeological sites.

Odissi is traditionally a dance-drama genre of performance art, where the artist(s) and musicians play out a mythical story, a spiritual message or devotional poem from the Hindu texts, using symbolic costumes, body movement, abhinaya (expressions) +

and mudras (gestures and sign language) set out in ancient Sanskrit literature. Odissi is learnt and performed as a composite of basic dance motif called the Bhangas (symmetric body bends, stance). It involves lower (footwork), mid (torso) and upper (hand and head) +

as three sources of perfecting expression and audience engagement with geometric symmetry and rhythmic musical resonance. An Odissi performance includes invocation, nritta (pure dance), nritya (expressive dance), natya (dance drama)& moksha (dance climax connoting freedom of +

the soul & spiritual release). Traditional Odissi exists in two major styles, the first perfected by women & focused on solemn, spiritual temple dance (maharis); the second perfected by boys dressed as girls (gotipuas) which diversified to include athletic and acrobatic moves.

[ Sattriya ]
Originated in: Assam
One-act plays of Sattriya are called Ankiya Nat, which combine the aesthetic and the religious through a ballad, dance and drama.The plays are usually performed in the dance community halls of monastery temples (sattras). +

The themes played relate to Krishna and Radha, sometimes other Vishnu avatars such as Rama and Sita.
Sattriya repertoire (marg) includes nritta (pure dance, solo), nritya (expressive dance, solo), and natya (dramatic play, group), like all major classical Indian dance forms. +

The Nritta performance is abstract, fast and rhythmic aspect of the dance. The Nritya is slower and expressive aspect of the dance that attempts to communicate feelings, storyline particularly with spiritual themes. And The Natya is a play, typically a team performance, +

but can be acted out by a solo performer where the dancer uses certain standardized body movements to indicate a new character in the underlying story. A Natya incorporates the elements of a Nritya.

[ Manipuri ]
Originated in: Manipur

It is particularly known for its Hindu Vaishnavism themes, and exquisite performances of love-inspired dance drama of Radha-Krishna called Raslila & is also performed to themes related to Shaivism, Shaktism and regional deities such as +

Umang Lai during Lai Haraoba. The Manipuri dance is a team performance, with its own unique costumes, aesthetics, conventions and repertoire. The Manipuri dance drama is, for most part, marked by a performance that is graceful, fluid, sinuous with greater emphasis on +

hand and upper body gestures. It is accompanied with devotional music created with many instruments, with the beat set by cymbals (kartal or manjira) and double-headed drum (pung or Manipuri mrdanga) of sankirtan.
Manipuri dance is a religious art and its aim is +

the expression of spiritual values. Aspects of this performance art is celebrated during Hindu festivals and major rites of passage such as weddings among the Manipuri people, particularly in the ethnic majority of Meitei people. +

The dance drama choreography shares the plays and stories of 'Vaishnavite Padavalis', that also inspired the major Gaudiya Vaishnava-related performance arts found in Assam and West Bengal.

[ Mohiniyattam ]
Developed in Kerala.

Mohiniyattam's roots, like all classical Indian dances, are in the Natya Shastra – the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text on performance arts. However, it follows the Lasya style described in Natya Shastra, that is a dance which is delicate, +

eros-filled and feminine. It is traditionally a solo dance performed by women after extensive training. The repertoire of Mohiniyattam includes music in the Carnatic style, singing and acting a play through the dance, where the recitation may be either by a separate vocalist +

or the dancer herself. The song is typically in Malayalam-Sanskrit hybrid called Manipravalam.
The basic posture of Mohiniyattam is parted feet, knees bent outwards, an erect upper torso, gentle 8-shape side to side swaying of body along with hips (Ati Bhanga). +

The footwork is soft, sliding and synchronous with the musical beat and acting. The body movement is sometimes described in terms of calming images of nature as the swinging of the palm leaves, and the gentle undulating of ocean waves.

I have only included the eight recognized by The Sangeet Natak Academy.

And like I said, I'm not an expert so please correct me if I'm wrong.

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