City’s first adavu jamming session paves way for Bharatanatyam dancers to unite

Adavus or rhythmic units form the foundation of Bharatanatyam. They have a specific tempo and are paired with hand movements. “These form the ABCD of nrittha but very often, dancers find it monotonous to practise alone,” begins Archana. When she came across an individual in New York, who organised the first ever adavu jamming, she found it interesting. “Similarly, there’s an online platform called Natyarambha that creates videos and softwares to practise. We decided to collaborate both and host an adavu jamming session in Chennai,” she says.

The event was an hour and a half long and divided into segments such as adavus with music, dancing while skipping a beat, breaking the chathushram (rhythm) and so on. “When we opened registrations, we were overwhelmed because around 45-50 dancers signed up within four days! The turnout was around 35-40 people, between the ages of 18 and 26,” says Archana. The session was held in a rented dance studio in KK Nagar, and the participants were informed of a dress code earlier. She says, “We told everyone to wear practice sarees or salwar kameez with a dupatta.”

The youngster tells us that the aim of adavu jamming was to unite the dance community in the city, who are otherwise very disinterested in coming together because of their schedules. “This was a great platform for us to interact, get to know each other and have some fun through dance. Everyone could follow their own style because of which the participants were comfortable with and happy,” recalls Archana.

Yatra wishes to conduct more such events, especially for dancers who don’t have access to teachers, or have relocated to the city. “Some of them were getting back to dancing after nearly five years so it felt good to have them there. A lot of people are enthusiastic and are looking forward to the next session,” the team says. However, they wish to take it slow because they don’t want adavu jamming sessions to become just another dance class.