Navras: The Dance Academy

 

Classical dance in India has developed a type of dance-drama that is a form of a total theater. The dancer acts out a story almost exclusively through gestures. Most of the classical dances enact stories from Hindu mythology. Each form represents the culture and ethos of a particular region or a group of people.

The tradition of dance has been codified in the Natyashastra and a performance is considered accomplished if it manages to evoke a rasa (emotion) among the audience by invoking a particular bhava(gesture or facial expression). Similar idea has been worked upon and translated into forms evoking emotions for each of the spaces in the design. As one enters into the academy, this play of emotions is continuously carried out from one space to the other.