Adavu is the technique of basic footwork common to Hindu classical dances. It is the basic unit of dance. In Bharata’s time, karana was considered to be the basic unit of dance. Natyashastra and later treaties do not mention adavu. Its first finds mention in the Mahabharata Chudamani and Tulaja’s Sangita saramata. Tulaja explains some adavaus under the title sarma vidhi.
An analysis of karana indicates that adavu has evolved from karana. There are various schoolsof Bharata Natya,and each has its own canons with regard to adavu. Adavus are a part of nritta (pure dance). There are fifteento twenty groups of them, and each group is subdivided.
Adavu is traced to the root ade which means ‘to beat’ – adavus involving stamping with full feet, forefeet, heels, jumping on the forefeet and the like. Different names have been given to these adavus depending on the movement of the feet. The popular adavu patterns are as follows
- Tattadavu – beating with full feet
- Mettadavu – beating with forefeet
- Nattadavu – beating with heels
- Kuditta mettadavu – jumping with forefeet
- Mandi adavu – beating the knee on the floor
- Tadhiginatom Adavu
Adavus are knit in syllables starting with ‘ta’, ‘di’ ‘kita’. There are four aspects in adavu
- Sthanaka – the starting and ending position of an adavu
- Cari – the movements of hands and feet in adavu
- Hasta kshetra – the area of the hand occupied in an adavu while in movement
- Nritta hasta – the different hand gestures used decoratively in an adavu.
By practicing adavus the student gets the necessary sense of rhythm and develops the stamina to dance more complicated items. Any adavu movement starts from the right and ends on the left side.