For the most complete aesthetic experience, a performance usually requires an audience understand the poetry. Rasa is aesthetic rapture or relish on the part of the observer, which is derived from a work of art. Rasa arises from a combination of Bhavas, emotional states - Sthayihbhava , the dominant stable state and Sancharibhava the transitory fleeting state. The causes are called Vibhavas and the consequences are known as Anubhavas . Rasa in order to exist entirely depends on the viewer or perceiver.
Most Western audiences benefit greatly from text translations for all dances in a concert.
Alarippu , the opening dance of invocation, is ordinarily danced to a purely rhythmic accompaniment played on a drum capable of great variety of tonal color, the mrdangam . The chiming of small brass hand cymbals played by the nattunavar or dance master, represents certain patterns of recited vocal syllables which are used in teaching the various movements of choreography. The recited syllables, in turn, represent the sounds of the drum. The dance master, recites some of the syllable patterns aloud when a certain type of dance sequence known as tirmanam is performed in subsequent concert pieces. A Bharata Natyam dancer usually knows alarippus in three, four, five and seven beats respectively.