In Indian classical dance, the art of expression and gesture used to convey emotions and tell stories through physical movement.
From Sanskrit 'abhi-' (towards) + 'naya' (leading, acting). It literally means 'leading towards' or 'bringing to' and describes how dancers physically bring emotions and narratives to their audience.
Abhinaya is so important in Indian dance that there's an entire codified system of hand gestures called mudras—some hand positions can mean completely different things depending on context, like a visual language more complex than most alphabets!
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