Bharatha Natyam is the classical dance form from Tamil Nadu and consists of three main elements: BHA- Bhava, or expression; RA- Ragam, or melody; THA- Thalam, or rhythm; NATYAM means dance. Originally known as Sadir, Bharatha Natyam existed as a highly evolved art form 2000 years ago and is a composite art, including elements of music, drama, poetry, color, and rhythm, to quote Rukmini Devi. In the Hindu tradition, the greatest of Being, Shiva, is the cosmic and supreme dancer- Nataraja. As Nataraja dances, so is created the cosmic energy of the universe. The possibilities that exist in dance are tremendous and infinite.

The British outlawed Bharatha Natyam during their occupation of India. During this time, dancers lost their traditional supports and artists' community. Dance survived secretly underground and was resurrected in the 1930's by the work of E. Krishna Iyer, Rukmini Devi, and members of the devadasi community. Rukmini Devi was inspired by Anna Pavlova and took up dance at the age of 27.

She gave her first public performance in 1935, at the age of 31, shocking Madras high society. She established the Kalakshetra School of Bharatha Natyam, which not only institutionalized the Kalakshetra style, but also revolutionized the traditional guru-shishya learning method.
Another notable and groundbreaking dancer is Chandralekha, who challenged tradition when she stripped her dancers of makeup and jewelry and created works with new themes. Other brilliant masters of dance and inspirations for Shakthi

Dance include: solo dancer Priyadarshini Govind, for her sheer dynamism and depth of bhava; Odissi dancer Surupa Sen, who has served Nrityagram both as a dancer and artistic director so instrumentally after Gauriamma's passing; Balasaraswati for her contribution in bringing "shringara" or the erotic aspect back into dance; Sudha Chandran, the dancer who lost a leg in an accident and still returned to the stage; California-based Ramaa Bharadvaj, who is an accomplished dancer and scholar; Anita Ratnam, creator of "The Other Festival"; and Radhika Shurajit, for her commitment to training the next generation of dancers,incredible bhava, and ground-breaking work with classical dance in the film industry.

Bharatha Natyam includes expressive dance and pure dance. Expressive dance includes eye, neck and facial movements and a vocabulary of hundreds of hand gestures. The pure dance aspect of Bharatha Natyam is based on families of basic steps called adavus. Adavus begin as simple stamping and builds up to complicated rhythmic patterns with up to 32 beats in a cycle or beat pattern. These adavus are then put together into short verses known as jathis. Bharatha Natyam is based upon South Indian classical music, the Carnatic tradition. Bharatha Natyam compositions are diverse and reflect the complexity of life and the human experience. Stories celebrate love, mourn loss, tell stories of gods and folk heroes, and can depict the full range of human emotion. The pure dance aspect of Bharatha Natyam is graceful, powerful, beautiful, and unlike any other aesthetic except that depicted in the temple carvings of dancers found in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples. Two of the distinctive features of Bharatha Natyam are the araimandi, or plié like position which is the basis of Bharatha Natyam, and the extensive use of hand gestures. The adavus, or basic steps of Bharatha Natyam incorporate precise footwork and hand gestures, strong, fluid arm movements, jumps, leaps and turns, and eye, neck, and head movements.

Every movement and step is coordinated with a musical note, a drum beat or a vocal percussive known as sollu kattu, or literally, "telling the beats". A traditional Bharatha Natyam dance repertoire includes the following types of compositions, of which there are hundreds of variations, set to different ragas (melodies) and thalams (beat patterns):