Bharathanatyam Dance

Welcome back @balambika1 .

After long hiatus you are back with dancing questions and apprehensions.

I remember your previous thread about apprehensions Regarding remaining as spinster : and you responded “like” to all respondents that includes me too.

Though am not competent, yet i wish to record my two cents here about learning Bharathanatyam. (BN)

My sister learnt this type of dance in Chennai and escorting her to classes was my duty. By observation, her dancing in the class, I learnt few nitty gritty when I was 12.

She had given the aregetram twice one after completion of learning in that dance school and Later after learning under vazhuvoorramaia pillai - the complexities: her another arengetram with elan was conducted in a well attended open auditorium on the lawns at Royapetta woodlands Chennai.

As she had ambitions to be a professional, she though it was necessary to get on stage and completed BN Arengetram. This helped her to get into a small dancing role in a five-minutes-dream-sequence scene for a song in tamil film by thesbian Sivaji.(நான்பெற்ற செல்வம் நலமான செல்வம்)

If you intend to learn only a part of the course of BN, only for learning, then learn it and no need to have arengetram done spending or splurging lots of money for venue, invitation, costumes etc.

Regarding duration, i must say when initiation done under guidance from perfect guru, one can learn and practise to perfection in less than two years.

If one has no intention to perform on stage for an audience, there is no need for salagai pooja.
Salangai pooja in the making



Once in a response to my best winning question in the columns of The Hindu, dancer Leela samson said stopping the regular practise of BN per se would not lead to weight gain or obesity. But then, i hv come across few dancers after giving up their practise, tend to put on weight to the point that they be labelled as obésë.

With best wishes
God Bless.