Abhinaya: The Art of Emoting

In Bharatanatyam, we often speak of nritta, nritya and natya. If nritta is pure movement and nritya is movement with meaning, then abhinaya is the bridge that carries the meaning from the dancer's heart to the audience's.

Abhinaya literally means 'to lead towards': it is how we take a song's words and the composer's rasa and lead the rasika gently towards the same feeling. The four angas of abhinaya, angika (the body), vachika (the voice), aharya (costume and adornment) and satvika (involuntary expressions such as trembling or tears), together create the full emotional world of the performance.

For the beginner, the hardest lesson is that abhinaya is not a mask we put on. It begins with the nava rasas: shringara, hasya, karuna, raudra, veera, bhayanaka, bibhatsa, adbhuta and shanta, and with the patience to feel them sincerely. When the eyes and the hasta do not agree, the audience sees confusion. When they do, the sahridaya (the discerning spectator) experiences the rasa.

My advice to students is to listen to the music again and again, away from the mirror. Understand the lyric, the character and the context before you add a single hasta. Technique gives you the alphabet; abhinaya gives you the language.