When joining the Bharatanayam dance school, a set of fourty basic steps with hand movements are taught to the students. After mastering the fourty basic steps, then you will go into learning the Bharatanatyam item songs. The first song is called Alaripu. The song Alaripu symbolizes your respects towards god. The next item song is called Pushpanjali. Pushpanjali, is the song about the god Lord Ganesha and offering flowers to him. The third item song is called Jatiswaram. Jatiswaram is the song where the students learns a lot of different rhythms and dance speeds. The fourth song is called Sabdam. Sabdam is a song about another god named Lord Krishna. The fifth song is the first senior song. This item song is called Varnam. Varnam is a thirty minute song about telling a story about the Bhavan Gita( the holy book). The last four songs, Shiva Padam, Devi Padam, Tillana , and Ashtapadi are the songs where they are very fast and very long. These shows a lot of various techniques and keeping with every single beat, because if you are a little off beat , then you are lost in the song.
After a student completes the whole curriculum, the student will have a graduation ceremony which is called Arangetram. The student performs at least two hours for her graduation. Also I have spoken to a girl named Priya who already have graduated from dance school.
“ The graduation takes a lot of work to prepare, I needed at least three months to practice with the live music. I needed to pace myself by not getting tired because I had to dance for at least two hours straight. Afterwards, when I finished performing I was relieved because I made my parents , my instructor and myself proud.”
