Rukmini Vijayakumar Instagram – The “attami” , side to side neck movement is often used by people to represent bharatanatyam. It has become indicative of the style itself in some ways to the layman, and I’ve seen it used as a comic metaphor for traditional indian dance in many different places. Strangely enough, the movement of the neck is unique to this dance vocabulary, but to make it represent the entire form would be as arbitrary as choosing chicken tikka to represent the entirety of indian cuisine. Classical indian dance is layered in more ways than one. It’s not just mimetic as many presume, it is theatrical in a unique way. the layering of rhythm is incredibly complex and the possibilities of creativity are endless. So the next time you see a strange head bobbing used to represent bharatanatyam, I hope you think of me and smile to yourself. 😊 (knowing that they have no idea about the true wealth of Bharatanatyam) Music: Kalakriya Video: @vivianambrose #bharatanatyam #attami #represent #indiandance #indianclassicaldance #indiandance #bharatnatyam