ABSTRACT
Dance performances in South Asia frequently combine dance, music, poetry, and drama. The definitive treatise on performance, dating from the early centuries of the Common Era, is Bharatas Nāṭyaśāstra. It describes dance as consisting of three main elements: nāṭya ‘the dramatic’, nṛtta pure dance’, and nṛtya ‘sentiment or mood conveyed through expression (abhinaya)’. The Sāmaveda, from the even earlier Vedic period (1500–600 b.c.), introduces the terms mārga, referring to the classical system and thus to sacred or classical dance, and deśī meaning regional music, and applied to dancing for pleasure or folk dance. Twentieth-century scholars have classified South Asian dance and music into four main categories: classical, light classical, devotional, and popular or folk. More often than not, however, these categories over-lap.
