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Theory And Technique Of Dance:

In the Indian literary tradition there is no dearth of critical writings on the art of information . But the most important and also fundamental among all these works dance . Both , at the level of theory and technique.

the texts provide valuable is Natyashastra . It was composed by Bharat , a sage , and its date is generally believed to fall between the 2nd century B.C. and 2 century A.D.

( in all probability around the 1st century A.D. ) Most of the information on theory and technique given here is thus based on the same text .

The theory of Indian dance is holistic in its exposition and cannot be understood in isolation , without taking into account the technique of the dance .

At the level of the technique , the art of dance has to be comprehended as an interesting synthesis of the arts of sculpture , painting , music , and even literature . The dance texts do not deal with the technique in isolation of one or all of the above .

All the treatises , in fact , consider dance as one amongst many communication techniques . The Natyashastra thus states categorically , about dance , in the following words :

This art will be enriched by the teachings of every scripture ( shastra ) and will give a review of all arts and crafts . The theory of dance is an integral part of the tradition of drama ( natya ) .

At a very early stage of their development dance and drama fused themselves into one . Thus , by the time Natyashastra was composed , the dance was very much a part of drama .

Evidently in the text then both appear as one - consciously conceived as one . They also have numerous points of contact . The theory of Indian dance has actually to be picked out and its principles selected with

discrimination from the entire technique of drama prescribed by Bharata ( Kapila Vatsyayan , Indian Classical Dance , Publications Division , New Delhi , 1992 ) .

According to Sangitratnakar , Abhinaya Darpana and other medieval treatises ,

dancing is divided into three distinct categories namely natya , nritya and nritta .

Natya corresponds to drama and nritya to gesticulation when it is performed to the words sung in a musical melody . Nritta corresponds to pure dancing ,

where the movements of the body do not express any mood ( bhava ) and do not convey any meaning .

All these aspects use movements of the limbs and poses of the human body as their medium .

The other type of distinction stated by these texts is that of tandava and lasya . Hence the technique of classical Indian dancing can be classified either under nritya , nritta and natya or tandava and lasya .

The terms are prevalent among practicing dancers , and we find that dancers from all parts of our country speak an identical language of basic technique , even though there may be serious variations in the interpretation .

On this basis the technique of dancing can be classified under two clear heads -- pure dancing ( nritta ) and dancing with miming and gesticulation ( nritya ) .
It would be more appropriate to term the latter as angika - abhinaya or just abhinaya .

Please correct me if I am wrong at any point