Scintillating INDIA: Indian Dances

Dances of India

Indian classical dance is an umbrella term for various codified art forms rooted in sacred Hindu musicak threatre styles whose theory can be traced back to the Natya shastra of Bharata Muni (400 BCE).

One of the most striking features of Hindu Dance is the use of hand gestures.

Speaking in dance via gestures, rather than orally, in order to visually convey outer events or things, as well as inner feelings, two classifications of specific traditional 'MUDRA' (hand/finger gesture) are used in Indian Classical Dance, and indeed are a prominent part of the dancer's vocabulary.

The Abhinaya Darpan (a descriptive primmer for dancers) mentions that the dancer should sing the song by the throat, express the meaning of the song through hand gestures, show the state of feelings in the song by eyes, and express the rhythm with his or her feet.

From the Natya Shastra, a text on the arts, this beautiful quotation and translation is often quoted by Indian classical dance instructors:

"Yato hasta stato drishti"..."Where the hand is, the eyes follow"

"Yato drishti stato manaha"..."Where the eyes go, the mind follows"

"Yato manaha stato bhava"..."Where the mind is, there is the feeling"

"Yato bhava stato rasa"..."Where there is feeling, there is mood/flavour, sweetness (i.e., appreciation of art; aesthetic bliss)"