[Paul Bunyan]

All art forms are supposed to have come from Lord Shiva.This is from a devotee point of view.

Sathir was practices by Devadasi community before this practice was banned in independent India.

Rukmani Devi removed lot of erotic movements(sringara rasa) from Sathir and renamed it to bharathanatyam to make it more acceptable in society.she also designed dress codes for bharathanatyam and also established Kalakshetra in chennai.This instituition can be called as "Mecca of Classical dance" in India.(much like music academy for carnatic music).Currently, Leela Samson is heading Kalakshetra.

There was a debate between balasaraswathi and rukmani devi in the Tamil Isai Sangam and balasaraswathi argued that removing Sringara from Bharathanatyam was against the devadasi community livelihood.But Rukmani persisted with this as otherwise no one will learn this art.Rukmani also broke the tradition hold of nattuvanars.

Currently, Tamils are excelling in this dance form(as in carnatic music) and majority of great dancers are Tamils.So, we Tamils can feel proud of this.
For e.g.
Padma Subrahmanyam, Alarmel Valli,Anitha Ratnam,yamini krishnamoorthy,chitra vishweshvaran to name a few.

Lot of foreign student are also learning bharatham and this music season in chennai is featuring dance concerts by Japanese artists.
Bharathanatyam is now the National Dance of India!!!

Other great dance forms include kathakali, mohini attam,kuchipudi,kathak,manipuri,Odissi apart from folk dances.