Fitness mantra: Rediscover Bharatanatyam to stay fit and improve flexibility

With its emphasis on body movements and postures, Bharatanatyam can be just as good as yoga. From improving your balance, to helping you maintain a healthy heart, the traditional dance form can do your body a lot of good — that too with elegance.

Since the Bharatanatyam style is marked by legs bent or knees flexed out, along with a significant amount of footwork, it is a good way to do cardio while also improving body balance. The postures and poses of the dance form are one of the best ways to help improve your body balance. The dance style also requires one to hold a posture for a few seconds, improving his or her body balance over time.

With the requirement of facial expressions, hand gestures and footwork having to be coordinated in a synchronised fashion, the dance form allows one to work out various parts of the body and improve flexibility. Even a practice session that lasts for 30 minutes can work up the muscles in legs and arms and help improve the body’s flexibility. Using props while performing Bharatanatyam can further improve the body’s ease of movement.

Bharatanatyam gives all the benefits that one can achieve from doing aerobics. Dancing is good for overall physical fitness and helps boost blood circulation. Better pumping of blood gets you closer to a healthy heart. In addition, the dance form also requires a lot of attention from the dancer to perform various leg and hand movements in sync, honing the mental skills and improving concentration.

With the jumps and taut hand gestures using significant energy, you are sure to be burning the calories you’re aiming at cutting, without requiring a gym subscription. So get your hands on the salangai (musical anklets) and get fitter,with elegance.