Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Kuchipudi are the main categories of Indian classical culture and dance. Actually, these categories had been originated in the southern part of India and contributed a lot for the formation of new culture and recognition to sub continent. These forms of dances are also played major role in the Indian Renaissance culture. Let start with Bharatanatyam which is the oldest form of Indian classical dance. Another popular dance form is Kathak originated in the north part of India which also has appealing effect in the imagination of viewers. In the same way, Kuchipudi was originated in the village Kuchipudi located in the state of Andhra Pradesh. These three dance categories are having great popularity due to their special Mudras which are the exponents of worldwide appeal and caliber.
Mudras
These dance forms have their own contemporary region. However, there is little bit difference in their movement style. If you notice that Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi contain many similar mudras. Besides the similarity, there are three different movements in Kuchipudi. For example in the performing of Tarangam step, the performer has to wash his/her hands in the pot that is put on the head and then turn off the candle. Generally murdas is linked to the Kathak dance which is mainly based on the Gharana dance. The most popular Kahak dance are Lucknow, Banaras, Raigarh, Jaipur, Natya, Gharanas and Nritya while other three famous mudras are associated with Bharatanatyam.
Dancers
All these above mentioned classes of dance are associated to the form of 8 Indian classical dances. The famous Kuchipudi dancers like Vijaya Prasad, Guru Smt, Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam, Lakshmi Babu, Divya Yeluri, Anuradha Nehru and Swathi Gundapuneedi, had contributed their active roles in the promotion of this art. Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam is the man who has established dance school for the learning of Kuchipudi. Famous Kathak dancers are Kalka Prasad, Maharaja Chakradhar Singh, Priya Pawar Ioanna Srinivasan, Manisha Gulyani, Najma Ayashah, and Lakshmi VN. The promoters of Bharatanathyam are Rukmini Devi Arundale, Ashish Khokar and E.Krishna Iyer.
Costumes
Usually for the perfumes of Kuchipudi, the costume named as cross pleat is used wherein male dancer has the role of Krishna or Muruga. This costume can also be used in the performance of Bharatanatyam but Katcham is placed at the back of the performer. In older times, Bharatanatyam dancer were supposed to wear too much clothes. Female performers usually played the role of Devdasi in which she had to wear heavey sari of dark color. In modern days, the trend is changes as Bharatnathyam has become a precise representation of Indian culture. Another interesting thing is that Kuchipudi artist wears one fan at the time of performing while Bharatanatyam dancer wears three to four fans.
Summary
In short, the history of these Indian classical dance forms is quite interesting because they have passed through an extensive radical transformation. If you want to learn any of these forms, there is a lot of information online about this stuff. It is easy to find a good dance school to learn these forms under the assistance of professional trainers and chorographers. These classical dances are also used in modern dances that you can easily notice in the dance of Michael Jackson who has made use of some Bharatanatyam movements many times.
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