The company
The company of the Abinayam association: a Toulouse-based group sharing, teaching and celebrating the richness of Indian and Sri Lankan cultures.
Founded in 2011, the company performs at public and private events across the Occitanie region and far beyond — Paris, London, Madrid, Switzerland. It regularly takes part in charity events.
The repertoire runs from classical tableaux to full Bollywood staging, by way of regional folk dances. New pieces happily blend all three.
Our dance styles
Cinema dance
Bollywood — a blend of Bombay and Hollywood — is the name of the Indian film industry based in Mumbai. Its dance fuses classical, folk and popular Indian traditions with an ever-stronger Western influence: a highly rhythmic language built on the coordination of every part of the body. Kollywood is its Tamil counterpart, born of the Chennai film industry in southern India.
Bharata natyam, kathak, odissi, kuchipudi
Bharata natyam, born in Tamil Nadu, is a fully codified dance: it combines a gestural language — eyes, head, hands — with precise rhythmic construction. Every hand position, every glance carries meaning. The company also works on India's other recognised classical forms: kathak from the north, odissi from Odisha and kuchipudi from Andhra Pradesh.
Bhangra, garba, kalbelia, lavani
Every region of India has its festive dances. Punjab's bhangra, exuberant and bounding, is the one audiences recognise fastest. Gujarat's garba is danced in a circle, Rajasthan's kalbelia mimics the undulations of the snake, and Maharashtra's lavani combines rhythmic power with theatrical play. These repertoires are regularly explored in workshops with guest artists.
Public stages, weddings, corporate evenings, charity events — across Occitanie and far beyond.