Online or in-person Bharatanatyam: which suits your child?

We teach both — at our studio in Vastral, Ahmedabad, and live online for families in the USA and Canada — so we have no reason to oversell either. Here is how they honestly compare.

What a studio does best

• Hands-on correction. A teacher in the room can adjust a knee or an elbow directly, which is the fastest way for a young child to feel the right position.
• Dancing to one beat. Everyone moves to the same rhythm at the same moment. Over video, that is impossible — more on that below.
• Space and floor. Room to travel across the floor, on a surface suited to footwork.
• Fewer distractions. No screens, no siblings wandering past the camera.

What online does well

• Access to the right teacher. Your child can learn from a teacher of a specific lineage, however far away you live.
• Individual correction, if the batch is small. With six to eight children, a teacher can watch every video tile and correct each child by name.
• Time that fits the family. No commute, and classes can be scheduled around school weeks.
• Recordings to revisit. When classes are recorded, a missed session or a tricky sequence can be caught up at home.

What online can’t do — honestly

Video has limits, and a good online teacher designs around them rather than pretending they are not there.

• Lag. Sound and picture always arrive slightly late, so a teacher and students can never dance perfectly together to one count. Online classes work better when the teacher demonstrates, then watches and corrects.
• Flat pictures. One camera loses depth, and feet slip out of frame easily. A teacher can only correct what she can see.
• The floor at home. Bharatanatyam is danced barefoot with strong footwork, and slippery tiles or thick carpet both get in the way.
• A parent’s help. Younger children need someone to set up the camera and stay nearby.

Setting up for an online class

A little preparation makes an online class far more useful:

1. Clear a floor space of about two metres by two metres.
2. Place the laptop or tablet a few steps back, in landscape, so your child’s whole body is visible — feet included.
3. Light from the front. A window behind your child turns her into a silhouette.
4. Mind the floor. Wood or a firm, thin mat is kinder than bare tile for daily footwork.
5. Clothes that show the line of the legs, so the teacher can see the knees in aramandi.

So which should you choose?

If a teacher from the lineage you want teaches small batches near you, a studio is hard to beat. If not, a small live online batch with the right teacher is usually a better choice than a large local class or a pre-recorded video course. Correction is how this dance is learned — choose the option where your child will get the most of it.

If you are still comparing teachers, our guide to choosing a Bharatanatyam teacher covers what to ask.

Our two options

• In Ahmedabad: classes at our studio in Vastral, taught in person by Binni Patel.
• In the USA or Canada: live online classes on Saturday and Sunday mornings, your time.