Components of Dance
Class 9 · Arts
4 ideas in Class 9 Arts, explained in plain words, with games and quizzes to practise.
Fourfold Abhinaya
Part of: Dance craft
The Natyashastra declares abhinaya fourfold: angika moves through body gestures, vachika sounds through speech and song, aharya dresses through costume and paint, and sattvika glows through inner feeling. Together they carry emotions across the footlights, planting dancer feelings inside watchers.
Why it matters. Four tools let dancers speak without saying a word.
Try it in two minutes
- Name four abhinayas.
- Say what each uses.
- Quote the verse source.
Try at home. Express happy with all four tools.
Body and Voice
Part of: Dance craft
Angika sculpts meaning through stance, like the Seraikela Chhau boatman whose rowing posture fills the stage, or Odissi's Chhinnamasta shaped by twin dancers. Purulia's masked dance-drama won UNESCO honour while Gambhir Singh Mura built its step-word from beasts and village motion. Mayurbhanj dances barefaced in stylised flow whereas Seraikella and Purulia don grand masks. Vachika then voices poetry, song, music and beat syllables.
Why it matters. Body plus voice doubles every dancer's speech.
Try it in two minutes
- Name two Chhau kinds.
- Say who wears masks.
- List vachika parts.
Try at home. Act rowing without any oar.
Dress and Things
Part of: Dance craft
Aharya builds character through dress and objects. Maharashtra's Koli fisherfolk mime rowing, net-casting and surf with real oars and nets, a troupe that marched the first Republic Day parade on twenty-six January nineteen fifty. Madhya Pradesh's Javara women dance millet pots on crowned heads, while Kerala's Pulikali tigers prowl in body paint and masks behind pioneer Chathunni Asan, and Kathakali faces bloom in painted grandeur.
Why it matters. True dress plus true props make folk tales believable.
Try it in two minutes
- Name three folk dances.
- Say what each uses.
- Quote the parade date.
Try at home. Dress a fisherfolk role at home.
Heartfelt Sattvika
Part of: Dance craft
Sattva means purity and harmony, and sattvika performance immerses dancers in distilled feeling until halls breathe it too. A gathered mind shines through focus and clarity, keeping expression genuine, believable and heartfelt, fed by watched life. Bhavas thus ripen into shared rasa. Masters prove it: Ranjana Jhaveri with her sisters first carried Manipuri beyond its home worldwide, and Sattriya and Bharatanatyam maestros move whole crowds alike.
Why it matters. Honest inner feeling turns steps into shared joy.
Try it in two minutes
- Say what sattva means.
- Name three expression traits.
- Name two maestros.
Try at home. Move one watcher with a silent face.
What your child will practise
- Body and Voice: Explorer'S Map Quest (Match It Up)
- Body and Voice: Jungle Quest (Flip and Match)
- Dress and Things: Desert Quick Fire (Quick Fire)
- Fourfold Abhinaya: Time Travel Sort (Sort It Out)
- Heartfelt Sattvika: Desert Puzzle (Clue Puzzle)
- Quiz: Body and Voice (8 questions)
- Quiz: Dress and Things (8 questions)
- Quiz: Fourfold Abhinaya (8 questions)
- Quiz: Heartfelt Sattvika (8 questions)