Bharatnatyam is a classical dance that includes Margam. A set of dances that we learn to master in the 7 years of the Bharatnatyam Diploma Programme. The dances that are included are Alarippu, Jatiswaram, Shabdam, Varnam, Padam, Tillana and Shlokam. While these dances have been for long followed, the choreographies for the same have been changing forever.

The defining features of the respective dance pieces are the taal and the technicalities like the meaning and purpose of the piece. This remains same but the choreography which include korvais and tihai’s that build pallavi, anupallvi , charnam and anucharnam of the song is a combinatin of aadavus which are the basic steps to all of the dances. When I was under the teaching of my previous guru, we were learning the same Margam that had been learned by my mother and her guru. In fact, there had been no changes in the theories that we learned for our yearly examinations. The only goal then was to learn the dance and learn the theory by heart. There was no sort of understanding about the history and how the dances had emerged.

With Covid and my last year before my DIploma, I decided to attend a workshop under a tamil guru who had recently choreographed a new padam, which is a devotional song to lord Shiva. We learned this new dance with the traditional roots. In fact, ma’am also talked to us about Abhinaya Darpan, the art of expressing and expression and the 8 Nayikas that Bharatnatyam dancers portray themselves as. The workshop was fun but online.

The evidence of the communication and practice videos sent for the workshop-

CAS strand/stands in focus- Activity

LO1- The strengths I had were that I was well aware of the basic Adavus and the postures that are required of us in the workshop so that made the experience even more fruitful. The weakness was that since I had not danced for over 2 years because of the pandemic, my body was stiff and not flexible enough. Additionally, I was a comparatively slow learner so I had to ask my teachers for a recording of the session and so on. They were very supportive. It was knowing my weaknesses and strengths that ensured that the dance I learned was the one I would present for my 7th-year examination’s Margam. I was successful in doing so.

LO2- Like I said, keeping up was a great challenge. Especially since my body a\was not as supportive. After merely n hours and a half of classes, my thighs would ache a lot and my teacher also complained about my posture. To deal with this, my teacher suggested stretching and even called me offline for extra practice which was difficult at first but worth it.

Needless to say, the workshop was very interesting and helped me make a come back to the world of Bharatnatyam and fueled me to give my 7th year Exam with a lot of enthusiasm.