Chapter 12 — Dance for Well-being

You have been learning hand gestures, called hastas or mudrās, since earlier classes. Each hasta can carry one meaning or many, and together they let a dancer describe objects, actions, people, animals and ideas, and so tell a whole story.

Hastas fall into two groups:

• Asaṁyuta hastas — gestures made with a single hand.
• Saṁyuta hastas — gestures made with both hands together.

The Abhinaya Darpaṇam of Nandikeśvara names these hastas in Sanskrit verses (ślokas). Its verse on single-hand gestures lists 28 asaṁyuta hastas, and later teachers add a few more (often four). The 28 are:

Patāka, Tripatāka, Ardhapatāka, Kartarīmukha, Mayūra, Ardhachandra, Arāla, Śukatuṇḍa, Muṣṭi, Śikhara, Kapittha, Kaṭakāmukha, Sūchī, Chandrakalā, Padmakośa, Sarpaśīrṣa, Mṛgaśīrṣa, Siṁhamukha, Kāṅgula, Alapadma, Chatura, Bhramara, Haṁsāsya, Haṁsapakṣa, Sandaṁśa, Mukula, Tāmrachūḍa, Triśūla.

Its verse on combined gestures lists 23 saṁyuta hastas:

Añjali, Kapota, Karkaṭa, Svastika, Dolā, Puṣpapuṭa, Utsaṅga, Śivaliṅga, Kaṭakāvardhana, Kartarīsvastika, Śakaṭa, Śaṅkha, Chakra, Sampuṭa, Pāśa, Kīlaka, Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha, Garuḍa, Nāgabandha, Khaṭvā, Bheruṇḍa.

Many names describe the shape: Patāka means flag, because the hand is held flat and straight like a flag; Mayūra means peacock; Haṁsāsya means swan's beak; Matsya is fish; Kūrma is tortoise. Knowing the meaning of the name helps you remember the shape.

Some common uses:

How to practise: sit straight with relaxed shoulders. Form each hasta slowly in front of the chest, check it in a mirror, then hold it for a breath. Keep the wrist alive and the fingers clean — half-formed gestures are hard to read. Practise with both hands so neither side is weaker. Ten minutes a day is better than an hour once a week.

Dancers traditionally learn hastas by reciting the ślokas that name them while forming each gesture in turn. This joins the memory of the word, the sound of the rhythm and the shape of the hand, so that the hastas become automatic. It is the same reason children learn the alphabet with a song.

The verse for single-hand gestures begins:

patākas tripatāko'rdhapatākaḥ kartarīmukhaḥ |
mayūrākhyo'rdhachandraś cha arālaḥ śukatuṇḍakaḥ ||

Each name in the line is one hasta, in order: Patāka, Tripatāka, Ardhapatāka, Kartarīmukha, Mayūra, Ardhachandra, Arāla, Śukatuṇḍa. The verse continues in the same way until all 28 are named and ends by saying that these are the 28 single-hand gestures. The verse for combined gestures begins with Añjali, Kapota, Karkaṭa and Svastika and ends by saying that 23 combined gestures have been described by earlier teachers such as Bharata.

How to recite and form the hastas:

• Sit in a comfortable cross-legged position with a straight back.
• Learn one line at a time. Say it slowly, syllable by syllable, after your teacher.
• On each name, form that hasta clearly in front of your chest. Hold it for a moment as you say the word.
• Keep a steady rhythm — you can tap a slow beat with your foot or have someone keep time.
• When one line is secure, add the next. Revise from the beginning each day.

Pronunciation tips: long vowels (ā, ī, ū) are held for two beats; short vowels for one. Say the 'ṭ' and 'ḍ' sounds with the tongue curled back, as in Hindi ट and ड. The 'ś' is like श.

Checking yourself: once you know a line, ask a partner to call out a hasta name at random. Can you form it within a second? Then reverse it: your partner shows a hasta and you name it. A good target is to recite and show all 28 single-hand gestures without stopping.

Why it helps well-being: rhythmic recitation steadies the breath, and the careful finger work improves concentration and fine motor control. Many students find it calming, like a short meditation.

Long before written language, people communicated with gestures and signs. Even today we use our hands constantly: a raised palm for 'stop', a beckoning hand for 'come here', a finger on the lips for 'quiet', a thumbs-up for 'well done'. Watch people talking at a bus stop or in a market and you will notice how much their hands say.

Dance takes this natural habit and makes it precise. Because each hasta has fixed meanings, a trained dancer and an informed audience share a code, rather like a sign language. A dancer can show 'a lotus blooms in the lake at dawn' using Alapadma, Patāka and a rising Ardhachandra, without a single word.

It is important to understand the difference between dance hastas and the sign languages used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing, such as Indian Sign Language. Those are full languages with their own grammar, used every day. Building a sign chart from hastas is a creative exercise inspired by them; it is not a replacement for learning a real sign language, which is a valuable and inclusive skill in itself.

Making your own hasta sign chart:

• List ten words you use daily: come, go, eat, drink, book, friend, stop, happy, yes, thank you.
• For each word, choose a hasta whose traditional meaning or shape fits. For example, Mukula brought to the mouth for 'eat'; Patāka raised forward for 'stop'; Añjali for 'thank you'.
• Add a simple movement or facial expression to make it clearer, such as a nod for 'yes'.
• Draw the chart with a sketch or photograph of each gesture and its meaning.

Communicating sentences: in groups, write two sentences you use often, such as 'May I drink water?' or 'Let us go to the playground.' Enact them using only hastas and expressions. Ask another group to guess. If they cannot, adjust the gestures. Add the successful signs to your chart.

Self-check: a good sign is clear, simple and the same each time. If you change it every time, nobody can learn it.

Once you have a vocabulary of hastas, you can enact whole situations without speaking. This is close to the mime you may have tried in theatre, but in dance the goal is to make it stylised — rooted in dance vocabulary, set to rhythm and music, and shaped by postures, gatis and hastas rather than ordinary acting.

How mime and dance storytelling differ:

Creating a group scene:

• Brainstorm situations with several characters: a busy road with traffic police, cars and pedestrians; a family preparing for a festival; friends going camping; farmers ploughing and sowing a field.
• Choose one situation per group and list its characters.
• Plan the sequence in three or four moments: beginning, problem or event, climax, ending.
• Choose hastas and gatis for each character and action. For the festival, perhaps Alapadma for lamps, Kartarīmukha for cutting vegetables, and a joyful quick gati for children running.
• Add music and rhythm, and decide where each character stands on the stage.
• Rehearse until movements are clean and the timing is shared.
• Perform for the class without words, and let the audience tell the story back to you.

Tips for clarity: one action at a time; face the audience when showing a hasta; hold key gestures a little longer than feels natural; let the eyes follow the hands, because the audience looks where the dancer looks.

Judging your scene: after performing, ask the audience three questions — Who were the characters? What happened? How did they feel? If all three are answered correctly, your storytelling worked. If not, find the moment where they got lost and make it clearer.

Have you ever watched a performance and found tears in your eyes, or been unable to stop smiling after seeing something beautiful? That happens because the emotion shown by the performer was strong and true enough to reach your heart. Indian aesthetics has two words for this journey.

• Bhāva — the feeling or emotional state. It is the first thought, the instant feeling that arises when something happens: a flash of joy at good news, a jolt of fear at a sudden noise. In dance, it is the emotion the performer creates and shows.
• Rasa — literally 'juice' or 'flavour'. It is the experience the audience tastes when a bhāva is shown well. You studied it in Class 7: rasa is the resulting experience of a bhāva.

A simple way to think about it: the dancer shows the bhāva; the audience tastes the rasa. If a dancer shows sorrow (śoka bhāva) convincingly, the audience experiences compassion (karuṇa rasa).

Why does this matter for well-being? Experiencing emotions can be healing. When deep feelings find an outlet, through dancing them or watching them danced, we feel lighter. Think of a film, song or dance that made you feel something strongly — perhaps pride during a patriotic song, joy at a festival, or sadness at a farewell. Afterwards, did you feel calmer or more connected to others? That is the healing side of art.

When you watch another person's emotion and feel it yourself, you are experiencing empathy. Dance trains empathy because the dancer must imagine another person's feelings in order to show them, and the audience must open itself to feel along.

An exercise in utsāha bhāva (enthusiasm and courage): choose a patriotic song you know. In a group, choreograph a short dance that shows energy, pride and resolve — upright postures, strong forward steps, open arms and a bright, determined face. Notice how performing it changes your own mood.

How to judge emotional truth: after performing, ask yourself: Did I actually feel the emotion, or only make faces? Ask the audience what they felt. If they name the same feeling you meant, the bhāva reached them as rasa.

In Chapter 10 you learnt that breath helps express emotion. Now look at it more closely. Every emotion changes how we breathe, and the change in breathing then shows up all over the body.

Take fear. When you are scared, you breathe rapidly and shallowly. That fast breathing comes with other signs: you may sweat, tremble, and your face may lose its colour. The breath is the engine that drives all of these. A dancer who wants to show fear starts with the breath — short, quick in-breaths with the shoulders lifting — and the trembling hands and wide eyes follow naturally.

Breath on its own can be expressive. A heavy sigh — a long, slow out-breath with the shoulders dropping — instantly shows disappointment or tiredness. A sudden gasp shows surprise. A slow, deep, even breath shows calm.

Theatre and dance compared: the same emotion is expressed differently in each art. In theatre, an actor might show disappointment with a realistic sigh, a few words and natural body language. In dance, the expression is more stylised and deliberate: the sigh may be timed to the music, the shoulders may drop in a clear shape, the eyes may move in a set pattern, and a hasta may complete the idea. In dance the whole body — face, eyes, hands, posture, feet — and the breath together form the expression. The arts are connected, yet each has its own language.

From disappointment to joy: think how a dancer could move from one feeling to the other. Joy might appear as bright, bouncing steps, a lifted chest and open arms, as in the Kolāṭṭam stick dance of Tamil Nadu or the Dandiya of Gujarat, both full of smiling faces. Even the more complex classical forms, such as Kuchipudi and Odissi, can show the same joy in their own refined way.

Practice method: stand in front of a mirror. Choose an emotion. First change only your breath; then let the face follow; then the hands; then the whole posture. Notice how much of the emotion is already visible after the breath alone.

Self-check: could someone recognise your emotion from the back, with your face hidden? If yes, your whole body is expressing it, not only your face.

The Nāṭyaśāstra describes eight lasting emotions called sthāyī bhāvas, each producing a rasa in the audience. Later thinkers added a ninth, peace. Together they give dancers a map of human feeling.

Working with these emotions in class is a safe way to notice, name and release feelings. Positive feelings like love, laughter and wonder are easy to share. Negative ones — sorrow, anger, fear, disgust — are just as human, and expressing them through art can bring relief. The key is safety: anger, for instance, can be dangerous when let out on another person, but channelled into stamping, sharp arm movements or a powerful pose, it is released without hurting anyone.

How to practise each bhāva: recall a real moment from your own life (keep private details private), let the breath change, then the face, then the body. Exaggerate slightly so it reads at a distance, and add a hasta that fits. Hold the final expression for a few counts.

Safety and kindness: nobody should be forced to share a painful memory. You may use an imagined or story situation instead. Never mock a classmate's expression, especially of sorrow or fear. If an exercise stirs up something difficult, tell your teacher or a trusted adult.

Now bring together everything you have learnt — breath, postures, chārīs and gatis, arm movements, hastas and bhāva — to create dance that grows from real feeling. The method below moves from the inside out: first feel, then move, then shape.

The 'dance from the heart' process (in two groups):

• Choose an emotion. Each group picks one of the eight bhāvas.
• Choose music. Find a piece or song whose mood matches. Your teacher may help.
• Feel it with eyes closed. As the music plays, close your eyes and imagine something that brings up that emotion.
• Let the body respond. With eyes still closed, let your body move naturally to the feeling — do not plan it. Keep the space safe by moving slowly and staying near your spot.
• Open your eyes and discuss. Share how the feeling showed up in your bodies. Choose a situation that expresses it.
• Shape the dance. Create a group piece using expression, hastas, postures, movement and breath. Keep remembering the feeling you had with your eyes closed, so the dance stays true.
• Perform and observe. One group performs while the other watches; then swap.

Ending in peace: after both groups have performed, everyone sits comfortably, holds the chin mudrā (tip of the index finger touching the tip of the thumb, other fingers relaxed) and breathes slowly to calm music, focusing on a feeling of peace and contentment. This is nirveda bhāva leading to śānta rasa.

Reflection questions:

• How did you feel while performing? Did the feeling change by the end?
• How did you feel while watching? Could you connect to the other group's emotion?
• Could you use this process — feel, move, settle into peace — when something upsets you in daily life?

This is why dance helps emotional well-being: it gives feelings a shape and a safe way out, and it finishes in calm.

Judging the piece: was the emotion clear and consistent from start to end? Did the group move together? Did the music, movement and faces agree? Was there a clear beginning and a still ending?

Dance heals in two ways: physically and emotionally.

Physical benefits: dancers do daily exercises that keep the body supple and strong. The head and neck movements you learnt in earlier classes (such as the sideways glide of the neck) keep the neck flexible and help relieve stiffness from bending over books and screens. Eye movements train the eye muscles to move quickly and smoothly and rest eyes tired from screens. Footwork builds stamina, posture work strengthens the back, and breath awareness improves lung use. These exercises support health but are not a substitute for a doctor: anyone with a medical condition, such as a neck or eye problem, should follow medical advice.

Emotional benefits: when you release your feelings through dance, the relief you feel is a kind of emotional healing. When you watch and relate to an emotion on stage, you feel empathy, which brings people closer. Dancing in a group also builds friendship and a sense of belonging.

Some classical scenes are loved by audiences of every taste because they carry such strong emotions. In Kathakali's Pūtanā Mokṣam, the demoness Putana comes disguised as a beautiful woman to kill baby Krishna, and the dancer shifts between charm, cunning and terror. The scenes of Śūrpaṇakhā from the Ramayana move between attraction, rejection and rage. Watching such shifts, the audience travels through many rasas in a short time.

Careers in dance and healing: dance movement therapy uses movement to help people express feelings and recover from stress or trauma. Psychologists and physiotherapists use movement in therapy. Dance-and-wellness programmes are offered in schools, hospitals and old-age homes. These careers need training in both dance and health sciences.

Group choreography project: in four groups, choose a song you learnt in your music class that touches your heart. Each group takes a few lines and composes a dance using everything you know — breath, postures, movements, hastas and bhāva. Then join the parts into one performance for the class.

Safety: warm up before dancing and cool down after; never force a neck or eye exercise; drink water; rest if you feel pain.

Self-check: after a dance class, notice how you feel. Calmer? More energetic? Writing it down for a few weeks will show you how dance affects your own well-being.