Indian Performing Arts Workshop

Indian Performing Arts Workshop: Physical and Expressive Principles of Bharatanatyam and Kathakali

Taught by Mónica de la Fuente · Casa de la India

Date: Monday, September 28, 2026
Hours: 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Location: Room 16.S.02, below the cafeteria. Getafe Campus. Carlos III University of Madrid
Admission: Free event. Advance registration is required through the UC3M Activities Passport

As part of the UC3M India Week, dancer, actress, and choreographer Mónica de la Fuente—a specialist in Indian performing arts and artistic director of LAB-India at Casa de la India—will lead a hands-on workshop focused on the physical and expressive principles of classical Indian dance-theater.

This session offers an in-depth exploration of the training techniques of Bharatanatyam and Kathakali, as well as some of the aesthetic foundations that underpin India’s traditional performing arts. Movement, gesture, breathing, rhythm, and emotional expression will serve as tools for exploring the expressive possibilities of one’s own body.

The Physical and Expressive Principles of Classical Indian Dance-Theater

The workshop will explore the study of movement and the expressive capabilities of each part of the body through techniques drawn from Bharatanatyam and Kathakali, applying some of their principles to our own movement language.

What role does breathing play in developing an expressive body and in creating emotional states? This is one of the major areas of study in Indian performing arts and one of the focal points of this session, which will allow participants to experiment with breathing, abstract movement, expressive gestures, and Navarasa—the nine fundamental emotions described by the Indian aesthetic tradition.

A workshop for training and creation

The workshop is designed as a space for training, experimentation, and creation based on the performing arts traditions of India. The traditional methodology of learning and passing on classical Indian dance will engage with elements drawn from contemporary dance, physical theater, and individual and collective choreographic creation.

The session will also offer a practical introduction to the Natya Shastra, the great classical treatise on the performing arts of India, whose tradition—spanning more than two thousand years—allows us to explore concepts related to emotion, space, movement, gesture, breathing, and physical and emotional expression.

Practical Content

The course will include exercises and principles related to:

• the yoga as a tool for warming up, training, and physical preparation;
• exercises focusing on energy, coordination, and dissociation of movement, incorporating elements of Kalaripayattu, a martial art originating in Kerala;
• the principles of Tandava and Lasya, understood as the complementarity between the vigorous and the lyrical-expressive;
• The three fundamental dimensions of Indian dance-theater: pure dance (nrtta), expressive and gestural dance (nrtya), and dramatized dance (natya);
• Basic positions and rhythmic sequences of Bharatanatyam;
• coordination between rhythm and movement through rhythmic syllables and adavus;
• study of the mudras, hand gestures, and their use on stage;
• techniques of Abhinaya, the art of gestural expression;
• work on the nine emotional states or Navarasa and training in facial and body expression;
• the creation and dramatization of texts and poems by combining rhythm, movement, gesture, and expression.

Navarasa: The Taste of Expression

In classical Indian aesthetics, rasa literally means “taste” and refers to the emotional experience that a representation evokes in the viewer. Nava means nine.

The Navarasa It identifies nine major emotional states: sringara (love or eroticism), raudra (rage), turn (heroism), bhibatsa (aversion), hasya (comedy), karuna (compassion), adbhuta (amazement), bhayanaka (fear) and shanta (serenity).

Building on this concept, the workshop will explore how each emotion can manifest itself through the body, the face, breathing, the voice, and movement. The workshop invites participants to discover the relationship between nonverbal language, emotional expression, and communication, transforming the body into a true narrative tool.

About Mónica de la Fuente

Mónica de la Fuente is an actress, dancer, and choreographer specializing in Indian performing arts, with a career spanning more than twenty years dedicated to their study, promotion, and experimentation.

He trained for about eight years at renowned institutions in southern India, including Kalakshetrain Chennai, Kerala Kalamandalam , and Margi, where she delved deeper into Bharatanatyam and Kathakali. Her training was supported by scholarships from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) of the Government of India and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.

In 2017, she received the Nrtya Nivedita Award from the Global Council for Arts and Culture, and in 2019, the ICCR Distinguished Award from the Government of India for her career and dedication to Indian dance and culture.

Since 2000, she has been developing her own dance-theater productions and intercultural projects. She has collaborated, among others, on *Flamenco, Flamenco*, by Carlos Saura, and in the production *Kijote Kathakali*, presented at the Almagro International Classical Theater Festival. Her work has been performed in Spain, France, the United Kingdom, India, and the United States.

She is also the artistic director of LAB-India, a performing arts laboratory at Casa de la India, where she is engaged in ongoing work in training, research, and creation centered on the performing arts of the subcontinent.

More information: www.monicadelafuente.com
Instagram: @monicadelafuentedanza

Activity offering academic credit for UC3M students through the Activity Passport.
For the activity to count toward your credits, you must register in advance through the Activity Passport—in addition to reserving a spot, when applicable—and sign in at the end of the activity.
You can register for UC3M India Week activities through: Activity Passport Registration
Section: On Campus / Other Activities