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Nartanaalaya

Dublin, California

A school built around one long apprenticeship

Nartanaalaya was founded to teach Indian classical dance the way it is taught in India: in person, in small groups, over years rather than terms.

What we do here

Nartanaalaya — nartana, dance, and aalaya, a temple or dwelling — was established by Smt. Chandna Talluri to promote the art of dance and to give it somewhere to live outside India.

The school teaches Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. Both are classical forms with fixed technique and a shared repertoire, and both are taught here in the guru–shishya way: one teacher, a small group, correction by hand and eye rather than by video.

Beyond weekly classes, Nartanaalaya presents students in group productions, hosts visiting artists for workshops, and prepares senior students for their arangetram — the solo debut that closes a decade of training and opens a dancer’s performing life.

Over the decades the school’s work has been staged in India, London, Cambodia, Greece, and across the United States.

Chandna Talluri with three of her Bharatanatyam students, in full costume and temple jewellery, backstage at a performance.

How the training works

  1. Adavus before repertoire

    The first years are spent on adavus — the basic units of movement — and on talam. Nothing is choreographed onto a body that cannot yet hold the position. It is slow on purpose.

  2. Counted aloud, always

    Students keep the talam with their own hands and voice rather than following a recording. A dancer who cannot count cannot recover when the mridangam changes speed.

  3. Abhinaya taught as language

    Mudras and facial expression are learned as vocabulary and grammar, alongside the stories they are used to tell. Expression is not decoration added at the end.

  4. One stage, eventually alone

    Everything points at the arangetram: a full solo margam, live orchestra, two and a half hours. Students only reach that when the work says they are ready.

Joining the school

Nartanaalaya takes beginners as well as students continuing training begun elsewhere. New students start with a conversation and a trial class, so that both sides know what the commitment involves before anyone signs up for a decade of it.

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