Anyone outside the Asian culture finds the Indian dances fascinating because they are made of highly gracious moves and loaded with religious and spiritual symbolism. Indian dances can be traced back in the year 400 BC, being depicted in Natya Sastra written by Bharata Muni. The worldwide interest in the Indian dances increased thanks to the Bollywood movie productions which never fail to feature mini Indian dance shows.

The dance forms of India, although extremely numerous and diverse, can be divided in two big categories: classical dances and folk dances. The difference between the two of them is the focus on the celebration mood specific to the latter. Otherwise, they are both deeply religious and spiritual.

Eight classical Indian dances have been identified, each one of them being specific to a certain region and expressing the ethos of a certain group of people. Let’s take a look at each of the eight classical dance forms of India and try to catch the uniqueness of each one of them in order to be able to identify them when watching a performance.