Adavus are the alphabet of Bharatanatyam — the basic movement units every dancer learns before any item. This guide explains what adavus are, the main families, how they are counted with sollukattu syllables, and how long each stage takes.
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If you have watched a Bharatanatyam performance and wondered how a dancer keeps track of such intricate footwork, the answer is that they are not improvising. Every movement is drawn from a fixed vocabulary of units called adavus — and learning them is the first, longest, and most important stage of Bharatanatyam training.
What an Adavu Actually Is
An adavu is a single, complete unit of movement: a defined combination of footwork, leg position, hand gesture, and body posture, executed to a specific rhythmic pattern. The word derives from the Tamil for "step" or "measure."
The useful comparison is to language. If a full Bharatanatyam item is a sentence, and a phrase of choreography is a word, then an adavu is a letter of the alphabet. A dancer who knows their adavus thoroughly can learn a new composition quickly, because the composition is simply a new arrangement of familiar units. A dancer whose adavus are shaky will struggle with every new item, forever.
This is why good teachers are, to a beginner's frustration, obsessive about the basics.
Aramandi: The Posture Everything Sits On
Before any adavu, there is the *aramandi* (also *ardhamandali*) — the half-seated position, knees bent outward, thighs turned out, spine straight, shoulders squared. Almost all adavus are performed in it.
Aramandi is genuinely demanding. It works the thighs, glutes, and core continuously, and beginners typically find they can hold it for only a minute or two before the legs burn. Building that endurance is half of what the first year of training accomplishes. There is no shortcut, and there is no adavu worth much if the aramandi collapses during it.
Sollukattu: How Adavus Are Counted
Adavus are learned to spoken rhythmic syllables called *sollukattu* — the drum-like vocables you hear the teacher recite. "Tai ya tai hi," "tat tai tam ta," "ta tai tai tat" and so on. These are not words with meaning; they are rhythm made audible.
The teacher recites them while striking a wooden block with a stick, a practice called *nattuvangam*. Students learn to attach movement to syllable so precisely that eventually the two are inseparable. This is also why Bharatanatyam students develop such a strong rhythmic sense — they have spent years mapping sound onto the body. If you would like to understand the musical side of this in more depth, see our guide to Bharatanatyam music, talas, and nattuvangam.
Each adavu is practised at three speeds — first speed (slow), second (double), and third (quadruple) — and the ability to hold clean form at the fastest speed is the real test.
The Main Adavu Families
Different lineages organise and name these somewhat differently, but the broad families are consistent across schools.
Tatta adavu is the first thing every student learns. Standing in aramandi, the dancer strikes the floor with the flat of the foot. That is all it is — and it is quietly brutal. It builds leg strength, rhythm, and the habit of the aramandi. Students typically spend weeks on tatta adavu alone, and return to it as a warm-up for the rest of their dancing lives.
Natta adavu introduces the stretched leg. The dancer extends one leg out to the side or front with a pointed heel strike, then draws it back. This begins to open the hips and develop the extension and line that Bharatanatyam is known for. The hands enter properly here too, moving in coordinated *hasta* positions.
Visharu (or Kudittamettu) adavu adds the jump-and-stamp. The heels lift and strike, the movement becomes springier, and stamina requirements rise sharply. This family teaches elevation and control on landing.
Tattimetti adavu works the toe-and-heel articulation — striking with the toe, then the heel, in rapid alternation. It is where genuine footwork precision develops, and where sloppiness becomes most audible.
Teermanam adavu provides the concluding phrases. Every rhythmic passage in a composition has to end somewhere, and teermanams are the emphatic cadential units that finish it — the equivalent of a full stop. Learning them lets a dancer close a phrase cleanly on the beat.
Korvai is not strictly a family but a stage: stringing adavus together into longer sequences. Once a student can link units into a flowing phrase, they are ready for actual repertoire.
Alongside these, students learn *mandi adavus* (performed in a low, near-floor sitting position — physically the most demanding), *sarukkal adavus* (gliding movements), and various turns and *utplavana* jumps.
Where Hand Gestures Fit In
Adavus train the lower body primarily, but hands are never absent. The *hasta mudras* — the codified hand gestures — accompany every adavu in fixed positions. In the early stages these are held simply; later they carry meaning and narrative. If you would like to go deeper on the gestures themselves, our beginner's guide to Bharatanatyam mudras covers the main ones with their uses.
How Long This Takes
Honest expectations help. A student attending twice a week and practising at home will usually spend the first three to six months on tatta and natta adavus, and roughly one and a half to three years working through the full range of families to a decent standard. Most schools introduce the first item, the Alarippu, once the basic families are in place — often within the first year — so students are not waiting years for their first real composition.
"Finishing" the adavus, incidentally, is a fiction. Senior dancers and professionals still practise tatta adavu. The units do not get harder; the standard you hold yourself to does.
Our full curriculum timeline, from first class through to arangetram, is laid out in how long it takes to learn Bharatanatyam.
Practising Adavus at Home
Adavus are the one part of Bharatanatyam that genuinely rewards short, daily home practice. Fifteen focused minutes of tatta adavu in aramandi, on a hard floor, counting aloud, will do more for a student than an hour of unfocused movement. We have written a practical home routine in how to practise Bharatanatyam at home.
One caution: adavus learned wrongly are very hard to unlearn. Self-teaching from videos tends to embed errors in knee alignment and posture that take a teacher years to correct. Home practice should reinforce what a teacher has already corrected, not replace them.
Starting Out
At Nrithyakshetra in HSR Layout, Bangalore, our beginner batches begin exactly here — aramandi, tatta adavu, and the discipline of counting. We take these slowly and correct them carefully, because everything a student will ever dance rests on them. Classes are available in person at our studio and as live online sessions for students elsewhere.
If you are considering starting, book a free trial class and try an aramandi for yourself. It is more of a workout than it looks.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an adavu in Bharatanatyam?
An adavu is a basic unit of movement in Bharatanatyam — a fixed combination of foot, leg, hand, and posture executed to a rhythmic syllable pattern. Adavus are the building blocks from which all Bharatanatyam items are composed, comparable to letters forming words.
How many adavus are there in Bharatanatyam?
There is no single fixed number. Adavus are grouped into families such as tatta, natta, visharu, tattimetti, teermanam, and korvai, and each family contains several variations. Depending on the school and lineage, students typically learn somewhere between 80 and 120 individual adavus across their foundational training.
Which adavu is taught first?
Tatta adavu — a simple flat-footed strike of the sole against the floor, performed in the half-seated aramandi posture. It builds the leg strength, rhythm, and stamina that everything else depends on.
How long does it take to learn all the adavus?
With regular twice-weekly classes and home practice, most students take roughly one and a half to three years to cover the adavu families with reasonable cleanliness. Beginners usually start their first item, the Alarippu, well before finishing them all.
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