Salangai Pooja
Salangai Pooja is a ceremony honoring the salangai or the ankle bells of the dancer. The most auspicious
item of a dancers costume – it is placed at the altar and blessed and the dancer then receives the
salangai from her Guru for the first time. Wearing it for the first time, the dancer takes her first steps
onto the stage to tell the audience that she has learnt and is beginning to understand the divine and
beautiful rhythm and movement – Bnatyam. it doesn’t say the dancer is master of the art but it does say
that she has learnt and understood the basics of her art. Like learning the alphabets of a language, she
has learnt the basics of Bnatyam.
item of a dancers costume – it is placed at the altar and blessed and the dancer then receives the
salangai from her Guru for the first time. Wearing it for the first time, the dancer takes her first steps
onto the stage to tell the audience that she has learnt and is beginning to understand the divine and
beautiful rhythm and movement – Bnatyam. it doesn’t say the dancer is master of the art but it does say
that she has learnt and understood the basics of her art. Like learning the alphabets of a language, she
has learnt the basics of Bnatyam.
At Samarpana, students reach this milestone when they complete about 6-7 songs and have
gotten the hang of the key aspects of Bharatanatyam.
