That it takes practice and patience to ace at any art form is a known fact. This fact is especially true for Bharatanatyam. It is believed that at least 6-7 years of rigorous training is required to even ascend the stage (
Arangetram) and many more years to give commendable performances. But in this time and age, I find a lot of people looking to accelerate the learning process by skipping the basics. In fact, I was once asked by a mother, "
if my daughter can directly learn a hip hop dance number, why can't she learn a Bharatanatyam dance item?". It is a valid question.
What people fail to understand is that Bharatanatyam is a very technical dance form. Imagine you start teaching your kid how to read a story without even teaching him/her the basic alphabets? That is what these basics steps are. The alphabets that you need to learn (well) in order to learn the more advanced dances. I cannot ball park the number of years it will take to finish learning these basics (as there are a lot). It entirely depends on the student's capabilities and the regularity with which he/she practices.
