Do you know that Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world that have designated traditional dances for each state?
For instance, Negeri Sembilan is famous for the Piring (Plate) dance, the Ngajat Bebunoh is danced by the Iban ethnic males in Sarawak, while the Zapin Pulau dance is widely learnt in the state of Johor.
Apart from categorising dances in Malaysia according to geographical locations, there are also many traditional and classical dances that are widely practised by the multicultural society in our country, waiting for us to explore
Dance is inevitably a huge element in a multicultural nation for various occasions such as weddings, social gatherings and even religious celebrations.
Among them, Bharatanatyam is one of the most widely taught classical Indian dances that has gained a huge following among Malaysians, even among non-Indians.
If you are thinking of learning a classical Indian dance, you're definitely at the right place.
In this article, we will review five amazing advantages that you can enjoy as you master Bharatanatyam.
Advantage 1: Cultivate A Sense of Cultural Appreciation
American dancer, Chuck Davis once said, "To understand the culture, study the dance. To understand the dance, study the people."
Learning Bharatanatyam is a good start to dive deep into the Indian culture and Indian community. For many Indians in Malaysia, it serves as an artistic and religious connection to their roots.
In fact, this dance is usually taught and learnt from one generation to another generation among Malaysian Indian families.
For instance, Umesh Shetty, who is currently the director of Temple of Fine Arts Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and a lecturer at Aswara, the National Academy of Arts Culture & Heritage learnt the Bharatanatyam from his father (Gopal Shetty), a pioneer of classical Indian dance in Malaysia.
And now, his daughter, Rohini Shetty is also well versed with the Bharatanatyam and other genres of classical Indian dance, having learned it from her grandmother at a young age.
It helps them not only be aware of their rich cultural heritage but also embrace the joy of mastering a beautiful performing art that could take them places. You can say that it helps to create a unique bond among three generations of this family.
However, Bharatanatyam is also currently a new favourite among the non-Indian community in Malaysia. You'll be surprised to learn that there are many Malaysians and non-Indians who majored in Bharatanatyam for their tertiary studies, undergo formal dancing training from scratch and even end up becoming seasoned performers.
Check out these established and talented Malaysian performers who have perfected the art of Bharatanatyam.
Advantage 2: A Good Workout Activity For The Whole Body
Do you know that the whole performance of Bharatanatyam can go up to hours depending on the choreography?
In 2021, 36 dancers from Sri Rathakrishanan Music & Arts Centre made headlines when they created a national and international record by dancing Bharatanatyam for 35 hours!
Isn't that an amazing feat?
Even though it was done in relays, it requires each dancer to be in their full element, to be at their best state through each steps non-stop for at least an hour on stage!
Dancing is a great workout activity because it requires the dancer to be mindful of these five elements:
- Body
This is where the dancer needs to be precise with their limb movements and various body parts when they are executing the dance choreography. It's also for this reason that dancers have to maintain a certain body shape or even body weight to be flexible and agile with their movements.
- Action
The essence of dancing is to capture how the dancer moves from one spot to another and how they maximise their presence through various actions. Some examples of actions in Bharatanatyam include movements of heads, movements in triangles and even certain hand gestures.
- Time
Regardless of the dance that you're earning, it's all about the rhythm and keeping your pace with the music. That's why we get excited and thrilled when we see dancers stopping exactly when the music stops or when their movements start to accelerate following the climax of the music.
- Space
At the end of the day, every dancing performance requires a stage. And one of the ways to create a strong and memorable stage presence is to make the best out of the space on stage. The using of space can make or break a performance.
- Energy
Incorporating the element of space and time, a good Bharatanatyam performance is defined by the energy that is channelled by the performers on stage. It's the energy level that determines the smoothness and precision of movements and creates a sense of connection with the audience.
The audience can tell if it's a relaxed or rigid performance or if it's a "life" or "lifeless" performance.
This may sound like an irony. But here's the thing. As Bharatanatyam is a workout itself, you need to workout in order to perform it in the long run. During this period, we guarantee that your stamina will certainly improve as you perform the dance.
Interested in learning Bharatanatyam? You can explore various platforms and locations to begin your first Bharatanatyam lesson.
Advantage 3: Improve Self-Discipline & Focus
One of the ways to know if someone has achieved a certain proficiency in Bharatanatyam is to ask them if they have ever performed a Arangetram.
Arangetram is equivalent to a "graduation ceremony" and a public declaration that you have "graduated" from learning the dance.
According to dance majors from the Akademi Seni Budaya Dan Warisan Kebangsaan (ASWARA), an Arangetram can take up to 3 hours and involve around 7 dance pieces.
The performer needs to remember every fundamental step, every single hand gesture and even express the right facial expression at the right time according to the rhythm of the music.
To be good at each of these, one needs lots of self-discipline to not only memorise the choreography but also practise the choreography again and again until it becomes muscle memory.
Not only that, the dancers need to solely focus on their performance on stage and not be distracted at all when they are performing. If it is a Bharatanatyam group performance, it also requires the performers to be observant of their partners/team members to perform in harmony too.
Discover the basic steps and techniques in Bharatanatyam.
Image by Freepik
Advantage 4: Experience Many Performing Opportunities
Apart from our country Malaysia, Bharatanatyam is widely performed in many countries and cities such as Australia, India, Singapore, America and even Canada.
As mentioned in our first point earlier on Bharatanatyam being a cultural act, it's widely performed for the global audience.
The art of Bharatanatyam cuts across all boundaries because it is viewed as an artistic expression in the context of performing arts and cultural appreciation.
For instance, we have the example of famous Malaysian dancer, Mavin Khoo who has performed the Bharatanatyam in India and even at the Bhavan London, which is the largest centre for Indian classical arts in the United Kingdom. Truly, the sky is the limit!
Are you inspired to learn Bharatanatayam as a beginner?
We highly recommend you start learning with an experienced tutor to master the fundamentals of Bharatanatyam progressively.
If one-to-one learning is your cup of tea, you can head to Superprof Malaysia to search for a reliable Bharatanatayam home tutor or online tutor in just a few steps.
After you have keyed in your location and subject, you can start browsing a wide selection of Bharatanatyam tutor profiles and go through their basic information.
Some of the details that you should screen through before making the final decision include:
- The tutor's qualification
- The tutor's performing/ teaching experience
- The tutor's teaching methodology
- The tutor's hourly rates
- Past reviews of the tutors (by their former students)
After that, you can contact the tutor via the messaging feature on their profile. To have versatile and unlimited access to all the tutors at Superprof, you can get the Student Subscription Pass to connect with the tutors freely!
Once you have finalised the details of the Bharatanatayam lessons with your desired tutor, you can start preparing for your first Bharatanatayam lesson!
With Superprof, learning Bharatanatayam has never been so convenient and easy!
Having an experienced tutor to guide you will allow you to have a comprehensive overview and a strong foundation of Bharatanatyam.
Advantage 5: Potential Career Prospects/ Side Hustle
While some of you may learn Bharatanatyam as a hobby, there will probably be some of you who are thinking of making a career out of your passion. Which is totally fine!
You could be interested in developing your interest in this dance as a side hustle to teach Bharatanatyam part-time at a cultural learning institution or to kindergarten kids for their year-end concert.
Bharatanatyam is a dance that can be taught at different age levels regardless of gender and nationality. So it's a rather popular dance choice to learn.
Who knows, you might even open your own Bharatanatyam dancing academy one day too!
Dive deep into these diverse learning resources to master Bharatanatyam regardless of your learning levels.
That marks the end of our article which highlighted the five advantages of learning Bharatanatayam. We hope the above points can encourage you to take the next step.
Day One or One Day, you decide.
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