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Bharata natyam, originally uploaded by Bharata natyam.

Bharata natyam dancer of Sri Devi Nrithyalaya - Chennai (Madras), South India .
Bharata-natyam is one of the traditional Indian dances, other performing arts being kuchipudi, kathakali, mohiniattam, chhau, manipuri.
In this Classical dance form of Bharata natyam, the music and costumes play and important role. In these photos you can see different traditional dance costumes.
Devadasis , temple dancers, were performing nritta and abhinaya in the temples. They learnt "bharata natyam" at classical classes the history of mudras (hand gestures), songs, and performed their arangetram dances. You can buy dvds videos of Bharata_natyam. You can see famous Bharata natyam dancers in this Bharata-natyam picture.