Abhinaya Natya Sala proudly presented the arangetram of its first graduate, Chitanya Gopu, on August 18th, 2013.

 

Orchestra: Smt. Sripriya Natarajan Moorthy (nattuvangam), Sri Prasanth Parasini (vocal), Sri Dhanamjayan Muthukrishnan (mridhangam), Sri Surya Narayanan Krishnan Iyer (flute) and Sri Muruganandhan Vasudevan (violin).

The word “arangetram” literally means “ascending the stage” and is the dancer’s first performance of a complete traditional repertoire, called a “margam”, showcasing her grasp of the three fundamental aspects of Bharatha Natyam.  The first is Nritta—pure dance with footwork that showcases different rhythmic patterns.  The second aspect is Nritya, in which a dancer renders the lyrics of a song using facial expressions and hand gestures.  In the third aspect, Natya, the dancer acts out a story by portraying various characters.  In one sense, the arangetram is a graduation, a culmination of several years of training— but in truth, it should be considered as a commencement, the beginning of a dancer’s deeper pursuit of this rich art form.

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