Classical Dances of India

Natyashastra is the earliest literature on music and drama written by Bharata Muni
Sangeet Natak Academy recognizes 8 classical dances - Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathakali, Sattriya, Manipuri and Mohiniyattam

Famous exponents of Indian classical dances:
Bharatanatyam - Rukmini Devi Arundale, Padma Subrahmanyam, Vyjayanthimala, Sheema Kermani, Padmini, Leela Samson, Meenakshi Sreenivasan, Yamini Krishnamurthy, Mrinalini Sarabhai, Mallika Sarabhai, T Balasaraswati, Navtej Johar, Sonal Mansingh, Alarmel Valli, Rama Vaidyanathan

Bharatanatyam expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas of Shaivism
Bharatanatyam is mentioned in the ancient Tamil epic Silappatikaram
Sadiraattam was renamed as Bharatanatyam in 1932
Rukmini Devi Arundale - 1st woman in Indian history to be nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha

Kathak - Birju Maharaj, Nahid Siddiqui, Lacchu Maharaj, Guru Gopi Krishna, Sitara Devi, Saswati Sen, Manjari Chaturvedi, Rani Karnaa, Roshan Kumari, Shovana Narayan, Damayanti Joshi

Kathak is found in three distinct forms, called "gharana", named after the cities where the Kathak dance tradition evolved – Jaipur, Banaras and Lucknow

Combo of 5 forms of fine art - Literature (Sahithyam), Music (Sangeetham), Painting (Chitram), Acting (Natyam) and Dance (Nritham)

Kuchipudi - Mallika Sarabhai, V. Satyanarayana Sarma, Deepa Shashindran, Sobha Naidu, Raja and Radha Reddy, Siddhendra Yogi, Yamini Krishnamurthy
Manipuri - Guru Bipin Singh, Darshana Jhaveri, Jhaveri Sisters, Devjani Chaliha, Amala Shankar, Guru Nileshwar Mukherjee, Yumlembam Gambhini Devi
Mohiniyattam - Kalamandalam Kalyanikutty Amma, Shobhana, Sunanda Nair, Kalamandalam Radhika, Thankamani, Kalamandalam Hymavathy, Rama Srikanth, Radha Dutta, Kanak Rele
Odissi - Alarmel Valli, Sujata Mohapatra, Madhavi Mudgal, Kelucharan Mohapatra, Surendra Nath Jena, Shobana Sahajananan, Minati Mishra, Pankaj Charan Das, Deba Prasad Das, Raghunath Dutta, Sanjukta Panigrahi, Kumkum Mohanty and Sonal Mansingh, Jhelum Paranjape, Shubhada Varadkar, Daksha Mashruwala, Nandita Behera, Guru Mayadhar Raut

Performed predominantly by women and expressed religious stories and spiritual ideas, particularly of Vaishnavism
Odissi was the only Indian dance form present in Michael Jackson's 1991 hit single Black or White
Traditional Odissi repertoire sequence starts with an invocation called Mangalacharana

Sattriya - Indira P. P. Bora, Ghanakanta Bora, Sarodi Saikia, Guru Jatin Goswami, Manik Barbayan and Bhabananda Barbayan, Moniram Dutta and Dr Bhupen Hazarika, Anita Sharma, Anwesha Mahanta and Mallika Kandali

It was initially created as part of Bhaona which are performances of Ankiya Nat
Introduced in Assam in the 15th century A.D by the Vaishnava saint and reformer Srimanta Sankaradeva
The themes played are related to Krishna, as well as other avatars of Vishnu such as Rama and stories from the epics Mahabharata and the Ramayana
Sattriya Nritya is accompanied by musical compositions called bargeets
A key musical instrument that accompanies a Sattriya performance is the khol played with fingers
The Sangeet Natak Akademi gave Sattriya dance the status of classical dance in the year 2000

SSC Notes & Knowledge Corner