What is Abhinaya and how to execute abhinaya
What is abhinaya?
First of all, let’s look at what is abhinaya? What does abhinaya mean?
Abhinaya, derived from the Sanskrit word “abhi” (toward) and “ni” (to carry), means “to carry the meaning toward the audience.” It involves the use of facial expressions, hand gestures (hasta mudras), and body language to convey emotions and narrate stories.
In Bharatanatyam, there are 4 essential parts to abhinaya
Angika: Expression through physical gestures and movements.
Vachika: Expression through speech or song (used in conjunction with lyrics).
Aharya: Expression through costume, makeup, and ornaments.
Sattvika: Inner emotional expression, reflecting the dancer’s true connection to the story.
The Navarasas, or the nine primary emotions, form the foundation of expression in Bharatanatyam:
Shringara (love)
Hasya (laughter)
Karuna (compassion)
Raudra (anger)
Veera (heroism)
Bhayanaka (fear)
Bibhatsa (disgust)
Adbhuta (wonder)
Shanta (peace)
How to execute abhinaya?
The most important key to master abhinaya in my opinion is 3 things: observation, internalization, and then imagination. Without any one of these elements, abhinaya cannot be achieved.
To act requires us to take ourselves out of our comfort zone and fully immerse ourselves to the characters. We have to erase our own identity and put on a new identity of the character we will be enacting. To do so, set some time aside, properly understand the storyline and the nayika you will be enacting then have a dialogue with yourself. By having a dialogue means you have to keep conversation going in your head, so you have an idea how the storyline flows. Of course this kind of approach comes with experience, initially you might find it hard to put yourself into the shoes of the character. If you feel blocked and emotions unable to come out. I would suggest you first start watching some older videos of master dancers doing abhinaya pieces and or old movies where the actresses enact to abhinaya, observe how they execute then try to mimick their expressions in front of a mirror.
My guru has suggested I watch some Tamil old movie to observe the abhinaya. Some of the movies she suggested are:
Vanji Kottai Valipan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl-KQ2O6aGM
Thillana Mohanambal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FxROzueNsw
I don’t abhinaya had a one size fits all approach, you have to find a method that works for you but I believe the above technique mentioned will help you progress, but it’s finally up to each individual dancers to internalize and make it their own.
