Sequence Recognition in Bharatnatyam dance

A new arXiv paper (2609.16306v1) proposes a method to recognize the motion sequences of Bharatanatyam Adavus, achieving 99% accuracy with a Convolutional Neural Network for Key Posture recognition and 84% with a Support Vector Machine for motion recognition. The approach then matches the resulting Key Posture and motion sequences against ground truth using an Edit Distance algorithm, reaching 98% accuracy. The work covers all 15 Adavus and 58 variations, unlike earlier literature that used only one or two variations, and targets applications in digital heritage and dance tutoring systems.

arXiv:2609.16306v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Bharatanatyam is the oldest Indian Classical Dance ICD which is learned and practiced across India and the world. Adavu is the core of this dance form. There exist 15 Adavus and 58 variations. Each Adavu variation comprises a well-defined set of motions and postures called dance steps that occur in a particular order. So, while learning Adavus, students not only learn the dance steps but also take care of its sequence of occurrences. This paper proposed a method to recognize these sequences. In this work, firstly, we recognize the involved Key Postures KPs and motions in the Adavu using Convolutional Neural Network CNN and Support Vector Machine SVM , respectively. In this, CNN achieves 99% and SVM's recognition accuracy becomes 84%. Next, we compare these KP and motion sequences with the ground truth to find the best match using the Edit Distance algorithm with an accuracy of 98%. The paper contributes hugely to the state-of-the-art in the form of digital heritage, dance tutoring system, and many more. The paper addresses three novelties; a Recognizing the sequences based on the KPs and motions rather than only KPs as reported in the earlier works. b The performance of the proposed work is measured by analyzing the prediction time per sequence. We also compare our proposed approach with the previous works that deal with the same problem statement. c It tests the scalability of the proposed approach by including all the Adavu variations, unlike the earlier literature, which uses only one/two variations.