Indian Classical Dances at Indian Embassy in Berlin

There will be two kinds of Indian Classical Dance: The Bharatanatyam is a major genre of Indian classical dance. Traditionally, it was performed exclusively by women, and expressed Hindu religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of Shaivism, but also of Vaishnavism and Shaktism.

The dance is accompanied by music and a singer, and typically her guru is present as the director and conductor of the performance. The dance has traditionally been a form of an interpretive narration of mythical legends and spiritual ideas from the Hindu texts. The performance repertoire of Bharatanatyam, like other classical dances, includes nrita (pure dance), nritya (solo expressive dance) and natya (group dramatic dance).

The other kind of dance is Mohiniyattam. This dance gets its name from the word Mohini, a mythical enchantress avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, who helps the good prevail over evil by deploying her feminine powers.

Mohiniyattam's roots are in the Natya Shastra, the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text on performance arts; it is a dance which is delicate, eros-filled and feminine. It is traditionally a solo dance performed by women after extensive training. The repertoire of Mohiniyattam includes music in the Carnatic style, singing and acting a play through the dance, Mohiniyattam is performed exclusively by women and is characterized by soft, gentle, circular movements. where the recitation may be either by a separate vocalist or the dancer herself. The song is typically in Malayalam-Sanskrit hybrid called Manipravala.

The dancer that will show this classical dance are: AnuradhaSamrat she is a Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattam dancer, she has studied in India and America.

Vinod Menonis is the co-founder and principal of “Mudra”, a dance collective of like-minded dancers from all over the globe.