Dublin, California
Nartanaalaya
The Temple of Dance
A school of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi founded and directed by Smt. Chandna Talluri. Students train here, from their first adavu — the basic step — to arangetram, the evening they ascend the stage alone.
Nartana + aalaya. Dance, and the place it is kept.
Bharatanatyam is old, exacting, and physical. It is learned the way it has always been learned: standing in araimandi until the thighs burn, counting a talam out loud, repeating one adavu until the shape is right rather than nearly right.
Nartanaalaya teaches it that way. Classes are small. Progress is measured in adavus mastered, not terms completed. Students who stay the course spend eight to twelve years here before their arangetram, and they leave able to hold a stage on their own for two and a half hours.
What a student is working toward
A full recital follows the margam — a fixed order, worked out over centuries, that carries a dancer from invocation to farewell. Each piece asks for something the one before it did not.
01
Pushpanjali
An offering of flowers. The dancer salutes the stage, the guru, and the audience.
02
Jatiswaram
Pure rhythm and melody. No story yet — only line, speed, and the geometry of the body.
03
Varnam
The long centre of the recital. Rhythm and expression braided together for forty minutes or more.
04
Padam
Abhinaya alone. The face carries the poem while the feet keep still.
05
Thillana
The dance returns to rhythm and ends bright, fast, and sculptural.
In development
Trividha keeps the practice between classes
An app built for this school and schools like it — attendance, homework videos, practice streaks, and one place for teachers and parents to talk.
Next on stage · today
Tanvika Karupakula
Shakthi — The Power Within
- Date
- Venue
- Dublin High School, Dublin, California