For dancers, strengthening acting ability can enhance not only artistry and confidence but also storytelling onstage. After all, there is a lot of overlap between the two art forms. “Acting is mostly listening and being present,” says Isadora Wolfe, the associate artistic director of Sleep No More and a teacher of the Acting for Dancers class at The Juilliard School. “Dancers have those skills. That’s what we’re doing all the time: listening in a million different ways.” Find Your Voice Venturing into a new art form requires stepping beyond comfort zones and facing uncertainty. This discomfort ..read more

Growing up, whenever Bala Devi Chandrashekar was feeling under the weather, her mom would make her jeera rasam, a traditional Indian cumin-and-pepper soup. Chandrashekar did the same for her two sons, and continues to swear by the dish’s healing powers. (Chandrashekar’s­ jeera rasam recipe, which she learned from her mother-in-law, leaves out the tomatoes and coriander­ seeds that her own mother included.) “If you have nausea or you feel very feverish or you have a headache or some uneasiness in the body, immediately we make this jeera rasam,” says the Princeton, New Jersey–based bharatanatyam ..read more

When Ragamala Dance Company performs Fires of Varanasi, two things stand out: the work’s innovative approach to the classical Indian form bharatanatyam and the commanding performances of company co-directors Aparna and Ranee Ramaswamy, who after decades onstage are dancing at the top of their field. “At 40, [bharatanatyam dancers] are still considered young,” says Ranee, 71. Much of the Western dance world prizes youth. But some dance traditions, including classical Indian dance, flamenco, and tap, value the gifts of the older dancer. Unlike contemporary dance and ballet, which tend to priorit ..read more

Visualization can be a powerful tool for dance artists. Choreographers might share an image to help dancers embody a certain step or phrase. Students are often encouraged to think of foundational steps in terms of sensory experiences, like moving through honey. Gaga, the movement language developed by Batsheva Dance Company house choreographer Ohad Naharin, uses imagery to spark dancers’ imaginations. “Images are a shortcut to a specific type of movement,” says Batsheva dancer Yael Ben Ezer. Here’s how to use visualization effectively in your dance practice. Tune In to Your Senses Visualizatio ..read more

Bharatanatyam dancers are known for their ability to imbue small movements with giant meaning. A pointed turn of the head, shift of the gaze, or movement of the hands and fingers can move the choreography forward or reveal the nuances of a specific character. “The moment you walk on the dance floor, you are learning how to articulate your fingers,” says Sahasra Sambamoorthi, a bharatanatyam dancer and teacher based in New York City. She says other styles of classical Indian dance—like Odissi, kathak, and Kuchipudi—place a similar emphasis on the hands and fingers. Even though hand and finger a ..read more

Paris-based Tamil dancer and choreographer Usha Jey took the world by storm when her #HybridBharatham series went viral on social media. Featuring duets and trios in which dancers switch between hip hop and the Indian classical dance style bharatanatyam, the videos are set to tracks by rappers such as Lil Wayne, Jack Harlow and DaBaby. Offscreen, Jey and her dancers have performed at high-profile events like Vogue World Runway in New York City and the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK. Jey is growing into a multifaceted artist: As a result of her childhood love of theatrical dance scen ..read more

Ashwini Ramaswamy boldly explores what seemingly disparate genres of dance can do when performed side by side. First, there was her 2019 Let the Crows Come, where two dancers, one based in Gaga technique and the other in contemporary/African diasporic styles, reinvented a bharatanatyam solo danced by Ramaswamy, the three interpretations in generative and ravishing conversation with each other. It was the dancer and maker’s first major choreographic project outside Ragamala Dance Company, the lauded Minneapolis-based bharatanatyam troupe run by her mother, Ranee, and her sister, Aparna.  R ..read more

Shoba Narayan, who plays Princess Jasmine in Broadway’s Aladdin, just so happens to also be an award-winning bharatanatyam performer and teacher, as well as a classical violinist and trained ballet dancer. That sheer variety of artistic training has enabled Narayan to breathe vivid, original life into characters like Hamilton’s Eliza on tour, Wicked’s Nessarose and Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’s Natasha. Embodying New Characters “In many bharatanatyam pieces, you’ll embody as many as 10 different people to tell an epic story. A lot of my process for physically becoming a chara ..read more