Bharata Natyam

Bharata Natyam is a classical dance form of India and is said to be based on the dance (natya) treatise composed by the sage Bharata (100–200 CE). Considered to be one of the fastest growing dance forms in the world, it is also the most visible form of Indian culture outside the subcontinent.

Although there has been an evolution of several dance forms in the subcontinent, the most popular in South India had been one called dasiattam (dance of the servants [of God]). Performed in salons and courts, at domestic and public rituals, and in temples by women, some of whom were courtesans, it was transformed into a “national” art in the 1930s by several artists, including Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904–1986). T. Balasaraswati (1918–1984), the legendary ...