Famous Classical Dancers

Famous Classical Dancers

The term "Classical" (Sanskrit: "Shastriya") was introduced by Sangeeth Natak Acadami to denote the Natya sahastra-based performing art styles. The Classical dance form performed usually describes a story between the good and the evil. As the entire dance is presented in a dramatic manner nritta it enforces clean facial expressions and mudra or hand gestures to narrate a story and to demonstrate certain concepts such as objects, weather, nature and emotions. Thus, the Classical Indian dance is also known as Natya. Even though the art of Natya includes nritta or dance proper, Natya has never been limited to dancing and includes singing and abinaya. These features are common to all of the Indian classical styles. In the margi form, Nritta is composed of karanas, while desi nritta consists mainly of adavus.