6) Technique

The technical aspects of Bharatanatyam can be divided into two major elements: (1) nritta, or abstract, non-representational movement; and (2) abhinaya, or textual interpretation, representational movement.

·Abstract movement, non-representationa ·Grounded in mathematically-oriented rhythmic structures ·Follows principles of symmetry and geometry  ·From the √ nrit (“to dance”)                  ·Musically rooted in abstract vocalized rhythms called sollukattus (“bundles of sounds”)

a) Nritta

The basic unit of movement in Bharatanatyam nritta is called adavu from the Tamil √ adu (“to dance”). These basic movements as we see them today, were first codified in a Sanskrit text written in at the Thanjavur court entitled The Nectar of the Essence of Music (Sangitasaramrita) in the eighteenth century. The movements usually involve all of the major limbs of the body, and are accented by decorative hand gestures which do not carry any meaning. A typical adavu is divided into several “steps,” each indicated by a different vocalized rhythm (sollukattu). An example is given below:

b) Abhinaya

Abhinaya in Bharatanatyam consists of a kind of stylized vocabulary of gestures. The basic sites connected with these gestures are the face (mukhaja-abhinaya - abhinaya which is “born from the face”) and the hands (called hasta-abhinaya – abhinaya which is “located in the hands”). Hand gestures (also called hastas or mudras) are of two kinds: single-hand gestures (asamyuta) and combined-hand gestures (samyuta). The meaning of the gestures is almost entirely derived from context. The same gesture -- the one called hamsasya, for example -- can refer to concepts and objects as unrelated as a swan, dew-drop, truth, time, nose-ring, and bee. Images of some single- and combined-hand gestures are given below:

As we have already seen, the thematic content of most of the traditional repertoire of Bharatanatyam focused on love and eroticism. Consider the song-text of this popular javali, a short and brisk genre, composed by the poet Mysore Venkatarama Sastri in the nineteenth century:

Didn’t I tell you not to, girl?
Not to have anything to do
with him?
He pretends to be nice, but look
he’s already involved with someone else.
Like some slick lord, he
talks politely
But he goes and acts just
like a fox; don’t get involved
with a rogue like him.

(trans. Phillip B. Wagoner in Viswanathan and Allen 2004)

Performances of abhinaya involve not only a literal, word-for-word representation of the text or poem, but also the creation an improvised “commentary” on the text. This “commentarial” elaboration is called sanchari-bhava (“feelings produced while wandering, roaming about”). The dancer may take up a line from the poem and elaborate upon it, while the musicians sing the line over and over again. Each repetition references a new thought or situation related to the line of text that is being elaborated upon. Traditionally these presentations of sanchari-bhava be very complex, and the quality of the sanchari-bhava was an index of the performer’s virtuosity. Expert dancers can interpret a single line for as long as half an hour.

Readings:

Ramanujan, A.K., Velchuru Narayana Rao and David Shulman. 1994. When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Viswanathan, T. and Matthew Allen. 2004. “Contextualizing South Indian Performance, Socially and Historically.” In Music in South India: The Karnatak Concert Tradition and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press.

Activities:

Ask students to try to form some of the mudras depicted above. Think about how you could use them to depict familiar objects and ideas. Remember, a single sign can reference a range of very different things. Try to string some of these together to build a simple narrative or poetic situation related to love and longing, or try to interpret a line from the translations of Kshetrayya’s padams in the reading by Ramanujan et al. using some of these gestures.

Ask to students to research images of Bharatanatyam online. Discuss how meaning is created through the gestural language they see in the images, and how each image is potentially open to multiple meanings (polysemous).

Show students a range of contemporary Bharatanatyam performances on YouTube. Ask them to attempt to contextualize phrases of movement. Which of these are nritta (abstract dance) and abhinaya (poetic interpretation)?

Assignments:

Ask students to watch a range of contemporary Bharatanatyam performances on YouTube. Think about how the dance today is straightforward “storytelling” as opposed to the poetic expansions we have discussed. Also think about how contemporary Bharatanatyam is almost wholly religious or devotional in its content. Try to contextualize these practices with reference to the historical issues of reform discussed earlier.

• Start
• Primary Sources
• Introduction
• 1.) Devadasis in South India
• 2.) Nattuvanars
• 3.) Temple Performance
• 4.) The Dance Traditions of Thanjavur and Courtly Patronage of Devadasi Dance
• 5.) Social Reform and the Disenfranchisement of Devadasis
• 6.) Technique
• 7.) New Dance for New Audiences: The Global Flows of Bharatanatyam


• Comment on this module

• VIDEO

• Hari Krishnan
• Purnima/Full Moon
• Medium, High

• Video 3
• Video 3
• Medium, High

• TEXT

• Soneji, Davesh. 2008. “Memory and the Recovery of Identity: Living Histories and the Kalavantulu of Coastal Andhra Pradesh.”
•  
• Gaston, Anne-Marie. 1996. “Training of Bharata Natyam Teachers.”
•  
• Kersenboom, Saskia. 1991. “The Traditional Repertoire of the Tiruttani Temple Dancers.”
•  
• Krishnan, Hari. 2008. “Inscribing Practice: Reconfigurations and Textualizations of Devadasi Repertoire in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century South India.” 
•  
• Narayana Rao, Velcheru and David Shulman. 2002. “Muddupalani.”
•  
• Allen, Matthew Harp. 1997. “Rewriting the Script for South Indian Dance.”
•  
• Arundale, Rukmini. 1948. “Bhava, Raga, Tala.”
•  
• Balasaraswati, T. [1975]. “On Bharatanatyam.”
•  
• Srinivasan, Amrit. 1988. “Reform or Conformity?  Temple ‘Prostitution’ and the Community"
•  
• Whitehead, Judith. 1998. “Community Honor/Sexual Boundaries: A Discursive Analysis of Devadasi Criminalization in Madras, India, 1920-1947.”
•  
• Ramanujan, A.K., Velchuru Narayana Rao and David Shulman. 1994. When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others.
•  
• Viswanathan, T. and Matthew Allen. 2004. “Contextualizing South Indian Performance, Socially and Historically.”
•  
• O’Shea, Janet. “Tradition and the Individual Dancer.”
•  
• Chatterjea, Ananya. “Chandralekha: Negotiating the Female Body and Movement in Cultural/Political Signification.”
•  
• Grau, Andrée. 2007. “Political Activism and South Asian Dance: The Case of Mallika Sarabhai.”