It is a dance for a soloist and its very difficult technique requires many years of practise. It brings every muscle in the body into use, those of the face included : the "abhinaya", expression of the emotions and feelings, by means of facial expressions is essential in every Indian dance style. Bharata-Natyam requires vigour and grace, balance and suppleness, a great physical endurance and a faultless sens of rhythm. The mouvements are ample and precise, always symetrical. The technical vocabulary comprises jumps, spins, and balanced attitudes. There are three sorts of dances : purely technical dances, with no other aim than aesthetic pleasure, based on beautiful attitudes and difficult rhythmic patterns ; dances expressing a feeling based on a chosen theme, alternating pure technical dance and "abhinaya"; narrative dances ("padams"), where the dancer mimes, with the help of the symbolical gestures called "mudras", along with expressions of face and body, the most subtle nuances of the invocation song.
