Benefits of Learning Bharatanatyam for Children and Adults

Learning Bharatanatyam builds strength, stamina, balance, posture and coordination, while memorising adavus and rhythms trains focus, memory and discipline. Abhinaya, the art of expression, develops confidence and stage presence, and the songs connect students to Carnatic music, poetry and mythology. Children and adults gain all of these, though in somewhat different ways.

Physical benefits of Bharatanatyam

Bharatanatyam is a demanding physical discipline. Almost every movement is built on araimandi, the half-seated stance with knees bent and turned outwards. Holding it while striking the floor, jumping and turning works the body in a way few other activities do.

• Leg strength: araimandi and muzhumandi, the full-seated stance, work the thighs, calves and hips.
• Stamina: adavus are practised in three speeds, called kalams. Sequences in the faster speeds, and full items such as the Varnam, need sustained energy.
• Balance: many adavus shift weight from foot to foot or balance on one leg, and some involve jumps and turns.
• Posture: dancers are taught to keep the back straight, the chest open and the head steady, even while the legs are bent.
• Coordination: feet, hands, eyes and head move together, often in different patterns at the same time, while staying in time with the music.
• Flexibility: regular practice gradually opens the hips and improves range of movement.

These benefits come with regular practice and correct technique. Poor alignment, especially knees collapsing inwards in araimandi, can cause strain. Our guide to araimandi and safe practice explains how to avoid this. Anyone with an existing joint, heart or back condition should consult a doctor before starting.

Mental benefits: focus, memory and discipline

Bharatanatyam asks the mind to do several things at once. A student performing a simple sequence of adavus has to remember the order of steps, place the hands in the right hastas, keep the eyes following the hands, and stay exactly in time with the teacher's sollukattu, the spoken rhythmic syllables.

Focus

There is no room for drifting attention in a Bharatanatyam class. A moment's distraction means a missed beat. Over time, students learn to concentrate fully for the length of a class.

Memory

Students memorise adavu sequences, the names and shapes of hand gestures, and eventually long items with precise choreography and lyrics. The Abhinaya Darpana, a classical text on gesture, lists 28 single-hand gestures alone. Our article on mudras in Bharatanatyam introduces them.

Discipline

Progress in Bharatanatyam is slow and steady. Students learn that repeating a step many times is how it becomes clean, and that regular practice produces results. This patience carries into school and work.

Rhythm and musicality

Dancing to talas such as Adi tala, an eight-beat cycle, and Misra Chapu, a seven-beat cycle, trains a precise sense of timing. Our article on music and rhythm in Bharatanatyam explains how dance and music fit together.

Emotional and expressive benefits

Bharatanatyam is not only nritta, pure dance, but also nritya, expressive dance that tells a story. Through abhinaya, students learn to convey emotion with the face, eyes, hands and body. The classical framework of rasas, the emotional flavours of a performance, gives them a vocabulary for this. You can read more in the nine rasas in Bharatanatyam.

Expressing love, anger, wonder or devotion on stage helps students recognise and work with emotion more consciously. For shy children especially, playing a character can be a safe way to try out feelings they might not express otherwise.

Confidence and stage presence

Performing in front of an audience, whether at a class programme or a temple festival, builds confidence that is hard to gain any other way. Students learn to stay composed, recover from a mistake without stopping and hold an audience's attention. For many, the eventual arangetram, the formal solo debut, is a landmark in that growth.

Cultural benefits: music, language and mythology

Bharatanatyam is a doorway into a whole culture. Its music is Carnatic, so students become familiar with ragas, talas and the sound of the mridangam, violin, flute and nattuvangam cymbals. The songs are in Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit and sometimes Kannada, and students learn what the words mean so they can express them.

The stories come from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas and devotional poetry about deities such as Shiva, Krishna and Murugan. A child learning a Shabdam about Krishna absorbs the story more deeply than if they had only read it. For families living outside India, this connection to language and heritage is often one of the main reasons to start. Our article on dance as devotion explores this side of the art.

Social benefits

A Bharatanatyam class is a community. Students practise together, rehearse group items, help each other in the green room before a programme and often stay friends for years. Children learn to respect their teacher and their elders, and to support classmates rather than compete with them. For adults, a weekly class is a chance to meet people who share an interest and to have time that belongs to them.

Benefits for children and adults compared

Getting the most out of these benefits

All of these benefits depend on regular attendance, steady home practice and good teaching. At Mayura Natyalaya, there are separate batches for children aged 5 to 12, teens aged 13 to 18, adults and working professionals. The Bharatanatyam classes for kids and adult classes pages describe how each group is taught. If you are wondering when to begin, read the right age to start Bharatanatyam or, for adults, learning Bharatanatyam as an adult.