The presentation of Bharatanatyam can be both as a solo performance and in groups. A group performance usually deals with enactment of epics, traditional and contemporary poems, stories, or prose in various languages, usually set to South Indian classical music. The repertoire of the solo debut performance is discussed below. ALARIPPU: A Bharatanatyam recital opens with alarippu, which is an invocation and a perfect example of the pure, abstract dance (nritta) which is executed through a number of concentrated, yet elemental, rhythmic patterns. JATISWARAM: The next piece is another example of a pure dance composition in which the performer weaves several patterns on a basic musical composition. Indeed, the word jatiswaram is the name of a musical composition which follows the rules of the swarajati in musical structure and is distinguished from other musical compositions by having no lines of poetry (sahitya) in it. SHABDAM: The piece that follows is again a composition in Carnatic music. Here, the dancer performs to a song and introduces mime. The miming is deliberately elementary and only the literal illustration of the word is presented through movement. The end sequences of this short number are of pure dance and serve as a bridge between the pure nritta compositions like the alarippu and the jatiswaram on the one hand and the major composition of the varnam on the other. VARNAM: This is easily the most intricate and complex number and provides the fullest scope to the dancer to improvise on a given theme. The dancer begins by presenting the gigantic cadences of tirmanams (patterns of adavus grouped together). There is great diversification of the musical phrase by the singer, the drummer, the conductor and the dancer which leads to a final synchronization when the end of the tirmanam coincides with the first note of the song. The literary content of this musical composition is usually the description of a god, describing his many facets and the devotee's yearning for the god in all His majesty and splendour. The building up is slow and cautious, but once the dancer reaches crescendo, the number invariably communicates a deep feeling of faith and adoration, coupled with the yearning of the human for the divine. ABHINAYA PADAMS: A period of physical relaxation is called for immediately after this elaborate piece and it is provided by the dancer through short numbers called padams. This is best defined as an interpretive dance of a lyrical passage set to music. The padams offer an uninterrupted opportunity for mime (abhinaya) through the language of the hands and limbs. The dancer represents a type of heroine (nayika) in a state of expectancy of separation or union. The symbolic or the allegorical content of these pieces has to be traced to the Bhakti cult, where the human-being is the lady-love waiting for union with the Divine visualized as the lover. The pieces therefore can be interpreted secularly or religiously. The literary imagery is so rich and full of traditional allusions that a dancer without adequate background and training tends to execute them only superficially. In the training of a Bharatanatyam dancer this particular area is not taught until she has attained a certain maturity, both in technique and understanding. The dancer sometimes introduces a kirtanam or javali also in her repertoire. TILLANA: The recital concludes with a brilliant number of pure dance which is a musical composition of mnemonics sung in a particular mode (raga) set to a particular metrical cycle (tala). The statuesque quality of the dance style is never more dominant as it is in the tillana. The dancer by this time reaches a degree of plasticity and fluidity of movement that she attempts to reinforce all that she rendered in her recital in a purely abstract number. What she had introduced in the alarippu, she fully develops here. Most dance recitals ended here until a few years ago, but presently there is one more number which was perhaps also performed earlier. That is the final sloka. Just as the nritta portion ends in the finale of the tillana, the abhinaya portion ends with the gravity of a solemn sloka usually invoking god in His peaceful and calm moods.