I will be performing a couple of bharathanatyam dances. Also I will share with the audience an interactive folk dance. The term Bharatanatyam is a compound of two words, Bharata and Natyam. The term Bharata is believed to be named after the famous performance art sage to whom the ancient Natya Shastra is attributed. There is an alternative belief that the word Bharata is a mnemonic, consisting of “bha”–”ra”–”ta”. According to this belief, bha stands for bhava (feelings, emotions); ra stands for raga (melody, framework for musical notes), and ta stands for tala (rhythm). The term Natya is a Sanskrit word for “dance”. The compound word Bharatanatyam would thus connote a dance, which harmoniously expresses “bhava, raga and tala”.
