The Accoutrements of an Indian Dancer

An Indian classical dancer has a set of jewellery and costumes that are worn in a particular order to represent more than just ornamentation.

It takes the dancer a few hours to transform into an artist ready for performance. In this talk, we look at the special jewellery and costumes of a Bharata Natyam dancer and what each piece means beyond just bling.

About the speaker

Monisha Bharadwaj trained for 30 years in the Indian classical dance style of Bharata Natyam and has had an international dance career which included performing at the opening of the Nehru Gallery at the V&A Museum, London in the presence of HM The Queen. She now sits on the Board of Srishti, one of the UK’s top Indian dance companies. Monisha is also an award winning author, food historian and a food writer based in London, UK. She is a qualified chef from the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Mumbai. She started Cooking With Monisha, situated in West London, in 2004. Today it is a successful school that attracts not only the home cook but also professional chefs who wish to learn Chef Monisha’s brand of simple authentic Indian cooking. Cooking With Monisha won the Small and Medium Enterprise UK Award in 2025 with Monisha Bharadwaj being awarded ‘Recognised Culinary Educator of the Year 2025’. Monisha also holds a BA in Indian History and in 2013, she was invited to be Guest Lecturer at SOAS, University of London, to give a series of talks on ‘The History of India through its Food’. She presents this talk reguarly for visiting American Universities to the UK. She has given talks in many settings, including Kew Gardens, the British Council, the Wellcome Collection, London.In 2020, her book ‘Indian in 7- recipes using 7 ingredients or fewer’ won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award 2020 for the Best Indian Cookbook in the World. Monisha also sits on the Executive Committee of the Friends of MAA (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge). https://cookingwithmonisha.com/

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Image credit: Monisha Bharadwaj.

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