Five traditions, and the discipline of telling them apart.

Her degree discipline and the grammar underneath everything else. Studied formally to B.A. level at Annamalai University, Chennai.

The Andhra tradition — more narrative, more theatrical, and danced with a different weight through the feet.

Kerala's own classical form. Slower, circular, carried in the torso rather than struck through the limbs.

Tribhanga and the sculptural line. The furthest in temperament from Bharatanatyam's geometry, and the most useful corrective to it.

Regional folk repertoire, performed and adjudicated. Assessed on entirely different terms from the classical forms, which is precisely why it belongs here.

Ensemble work and choreography: spatial management, thematic execution, and the discipline of making a group read as one body.