Dreams and Musical Feet
The Kalarpana Dance Studio in Chennai, India, buzzes with the noise of chanting and foot stamping. Inside the brick building, a dance instructor chants “Tat Tai Ta Ha Dhit Tai Ta Ha,” as rows of young girls stamp in steady rhythms. S.B. Bhagyasree wanders about the room, straightening backs and whispering words of encouragement. She is only 10 years old.
S.B. Bhagyasree is like many girls her age. She likes to read “beautiful stories,” play video games with her friends, and study math. Her mother, S. Rukmani, works at Bhagyasree’s school. Her father, Suryanarayana Bhatt, is an auto-rickshaw driver from whom she gets the initials S.B. (In much of India, children place their fathers’ initials before their own names.)
A Dream of Dance
Bhagyasree, however, is an accomplished Bharata natyam dancer. She has studied for many years under Shobana, a famous dance and cinema star. Bhagyasree first discovered her love for dance when watching TV. “I was three and right then I wanted to dance,” she says.
Bhagyasree’s dream is to have a solo performance. “I really want to dance a whole program by myself,” Bhagyasree says. “That will show I have the stamina of a graceful dancer.”
At the dance studio, the older girls practice, chanting a long string of phrases in rhythm with one another. They practice the many hastas, or hand gestures, chanting their names as the dancers form a new gesture every half second. Dancers who cannot keep up move to the side. Bhagyasree remains one of the last dancers chanting.
Classes begin with lots of stamping. Says Bhagyasree, “We first practice the steps — single stamping, then double stamping, triples, quadruples, and up, the rhythm changing with the number of steps. After that, the steps get more complicated.” Bhagyasree explains that all the work is “to make our bodies strong, to help us find grace in our movement, and gain stamina. That makes a good Bharata natyam dancer.”
“When we practice, our teacher will watch to choose who will dance in the performances. She picks girls with graceful leg and hand movements.” Bhagyasree often performs alongside the oldest girls in the school.
As Bhagyasree enthusiastically dances about the studio, her feet thump against the floor, ringing imaginary bells. She explains, “We wear the bells only in performance, not in practice. Our performances begin by asking the teacher for the ankle bells.”
Before asking for the bells, however, preparations are intense. Bharata natyam dancers wear elaborate costumes, including armlets, bangles, nose rings, ear decorations, earrings, neck ornaments, decorative waist belts, and anklets. The dancers tingle and ring with all the decoration.
Bhagyasree wears a headdress that is decorated with two discs. They represent the sun and the moon and are divided by a small string that hangs down as earrings. Bhagyasree draws dark lines around her eyes to emphasize their movement and then dyes her feet and fingertips red. The red marks “help the audience to see what we are doing and make the gestures look very nice.”
Performances begin with alarippu, in which “we say a prayer and bow to our parents and the audience,” explains Bhagyasree. “We then bow to the teacher, and she gives us the changalai, the anklet bells.” The dancers tie on the changalai, each with 50 bells, and take to the stage. They begin to dance.
Bhagyasree dances with them, getting closer to her dream every time her feet sing.
What is Bharata Natyam?
Bharata natyam is a twentieth-century version of a dance form that is hundreds of years old. It is similar to dances that are described in ancient texts. One of these texts, the Natyasastra, may be nearly 2,000 years old. In this work, hand and head gestures in drama and dance are described. So is the way the eyes and eyebrows should move to best express emotion.
In Bharata natyam, the movements are quick, crisp, and angular. The hand gestures, called hastas, are the focal point. In dances with stories, they symbolize places, animals, and human beings. The feet keep tempo, providing a pleasing accompaniment.