Training

Bharatnayam

Bharatanatyam remained exclusive to Hindu temples through the 19th century.[9] It was banned by the colonial British government in 1910,[13] but the Indian community protested against the ban and expanded its performance outside temples in the 20th century.[9][13][14] Modern stage productions of Bharatanatyam has been spread out and popular throughout India that has been done in different ways and have incorporated technical performances, pure dance based on non-religious ideas and fusion themes.[8][9] Tanjavur brothers gave the actual form of the recent day repertoire of Bharatanatyam by formalizing bharatanatyam into a melodious art form.[15]

Mohiniyattam

Mohiniyattam's roots, like all classical Indian dances, are in the Natya Shastra – the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text on performance arts.[6][7] However, it follows the Lasya style described in Natya Shastra, that is a dance which is delicate, eros-filled and feminine.[2][8] It is traditionally a solo dance performed by women after extensive training, though nowadays men can also perform the dance.[9][10][11][12] The repertoire of Mohiniyattam includes music in the Carnatic style, singing and acting a play through the dance, where the recitation may be either by a separate vocalist or the dancer themselves. The song is typically in Malayalam-Sanskrit hybrid called Manipravalam.[2] The earliest mention of the word is found in the 16th-century legal text Vyavaharamala, but the likely roots of the dance are older.[13] The dance was systematized in the 18th century, was ridiculed as a Devadasi prostitution system during the colonial British Raj, banned by a series of laws from 1931 through 1938, a ban that was protested and partially repealed in 1940.[14] The socio-political conflict ultimately led to renewed interest, revival and reconstruction of Mohiniyattam by the people of Kerala, particularly the poet Vallathol Narayana Menon.

Kathakalli

A Kathakali performance, like all classical dance arts of India, synthesizes music, vocal performers, choreography and hand and facial gestures together to express ideas. However, Kathakali differs in that it also incorporates movements from ancient Indian martial arts and athletic traditions of South India.[2][3][5] Kathakali also differs in that the structure and details of its art form developed in the courts and theatres of Hindu principalities, unlike other classical Indian dances which primarily developed in Hindu temples and monastic schools.[2][6][citation needed] The traditional themes of the Kathakali are folk stories, religious legends and spiritual ideas from the Hindu epics and the Puranas.[7] The vocal performance has traditionally been performed in Sanskritised Malayalam.[6] In modern compositions, Indian Kathakali troupes have included women artistes,[4] and adapted Western stories and plays such as those by Shakespeare