Present form of Bharatnatyam

At present Bharatnatyam is an immensely popular classical dance form of India. This means generally the dance forms consists ‘allaripu’, ‘jathiswaram’, ‘sabdam’, ‘barnam’, ‘padam’ and ‘thillana’. These forms were added from many years later. The present form of Bharatnatyam dance was evolved by Poniah Pillai of Tanjore and his brothers.

Allaripu is the first form which came from the Telegu word “Alarimpu”which means to adorn with flowers. There is an invocation song combining pure dance with the recitation of sound syllebles. This dance continued from five to eight minutes. In this dance form simple and fluent gestures are followed.
In the next item jathiswaram, instruments like mridanga and mandira was used.
Image courtesy: Google
 After the jathiswaram the item Shabdam is performed.the accompanying song is generally in adoration of supreme being. these songs are written in Telegu and religious in nature.
 Barnam is performed after the Shabdam. This is the most important compositio of Bharatnatyam encompasses drama, nritta and nritya and expresses te essence of traditional dance form. It is the combination of bhaba, raga, tala and it continued to one hour.
After the strenuous barnam the item performed is Padam. It is on the theme of love and divine. the dancers performs a number of abhinaya items to express variety of moods.
a Bharatnatyam performance end up with Thillana. This dance format is presented through the combination of chanda, lassya, madhurya.
All of these items have enriched the performance of Bharatnatyam.

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