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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.
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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.
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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.
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