The body of the form
- Adavus, korvais and jathis
- Araimandi, balance and stamina
- Nritta, nritya and natya
- Abhinaya and the nava rasas
- Full-length margam repertoire
Home / Learn
What we
teach here.
Two full courses — Bharatanatyam and Carnatic classical music — each taught with its complete theory, its repertoire, and the stage practice that finishes an artist.
Course one
Bharatanatyam
The complete theoretical and practical knowledge of Bharatanatyam — taught from the first adavu through to a full-length solo margam, and beyond it into choreography.
Students begin with the body: stance, balance, the adavu vocabulary and the discipline of araimandi. Rhythm arrives with jathis and korvais; expression arrives with abhinaya, the nava rasas, and the stories that give a gesture its meaning.
Around that core, the course carries what a dancer genuinely needs to know — the puranas the repertoire is drawn from, the temple sculpture and history the form grew out of, folk styles of Karnataka, and yoga practised alongside dance.
Why it is the way it is
- History of Indian classical dance
- Temples, dynasties and sculpture
- Indian puranas and their stories
- Hasta mudras and their vocabulary
- The eight classical dance forms of India
The wider training
- Folk styles of Karnataka
- Yoga with dance
- Choreography
- Dance drama and ensemble work
- Stagecraft, lighting and production
Course two
Carnatic Music
Complete theoretical and practical training in Carnatic classical vocal, devotional song, and the Carnatic keyboard.
Vocal training begins at the beginning — sarali varise, jantai, alankaras — and proceeds through geethams, swarajathis, varnams and kritis into concert repertoire. Voice culture runs throughout; manodharma is introduced when the foundation can hold it.
The keyboard course teaches the Carnatic system on a fixed-pitch instrument: how gamaka is produced, how to accompany, and how to hold a line on a classical stage. Devotional repertoire — devaranamas, bhajans and stotras — runs alongside both.
Carnatic classical vocal
- Sarali, jantai and alankaras
- Geethams, swarajathis, varnams
- Kritis and concert repertoire
- Voice culture and shruti discipline
- Manodharma — the improvised forms
Carnatic classical keyboard
- Fingering and Carnatic notation
- Producing gamaka on a keyboard
- Accompaniment technique
- Solo and concert repertoire
The grammar of the music
- Sapta swara and the raga system
- Tala and rhythmic structure
- Classification of ragas
- Raga and the nava rasas
- Instruments and their categories
Progression
How a student moves through the years
There is no fixed clock. A student advances when the guru judges them ready — but the milestones below are the ones nearly everyone passes through.
Foundation
The first years. Basic adavus or basic varise, posture and shruti, and the habit of daily practice. Students perform for the first time at Nada Mukula or Nadopasana.
Junior & Senior
Repertoire builds and the theory papers begin. Students sit the Junior and Senior examinations conducted annually by Gangubai Hangal Music University.
Pre-Vidwath & Vidwath
The advanced grades. Full-length repertoire, deeper theory, and preparation for scholarships and for the graded auditions of Doordarshan and All India Radio.
Rangapravesha
The full-fledged solo debut — a complete programme presented before an audience and senior artists. Thirty-eight students of the academy have now accomplished theirs.
And after
Many disciples go on to teach and perform in their own right. The academy remains their guru's house.
Prizes are awarded every year to the students who score the highest marks in the music and dance examinations.
Wherever you are
Online classes
Several students outside India train at NAMD in Bharatanatyam and Carnatic classical vocal through virtual classes. The syllabus does not change and neither does the standard — only the room does.
Online students follow the same progression, sit the same examinations where they are able to, and are expected at the annual festival whenever they can travel for it.
For institutions
Workshops & lecture demonstrations
Both gurus conduct workshops, seminars and lecture demonstrations on art and culture for schools, colleges and cultural bodies — covering the history of the forms, the navarasa and the ragas, mudras, yoga, temple architecture and the classical dances and music of India.
Theme-based dance ensembles have also been conceived and choreographed on commission for international conferences — on climate change, sustainable development, women's empowerment and Ayurveda.
Before you enrol
What we ask of a student
Attendance you can keep
Classical training is cumulative. A student who attends irregularly does not progress slowly — they go backwards.
Practice between classes
What happens in class is instruction. What happens at home is learning. Both are required.
A family that is in it too
For younger students, a parent's steadiness over years matters as much as the child's talent in year one.
Respect for the room
The guru–shishya relationship carries obligations on both sides. We take ours seriously and expect the same.
Admissions
Start where you are.
Beginners from around age five, adults returning to an art they left, and overseas students online — tell us where you're starting from and we'll tell you honestly what it will take.