Tandav

Tandav is a masculine style of dance associated with Lord Shiva in his form as Nataraj. Tandav is strictly for men (lasya is the complementary form of dance), because there are some facial expressions which are not considered suitable for women. Tandav is very fast, powerful, and exhilarating.

Backstory

According to legend, Lord Shiva performed tandav to kill a demon named Tripura. After Tripura was smitten, Parvati performed lasya out of happiness. Lord Shiva's student, Tandu, taught rishis tandav and they, in turn, gave it to people.

Lord Shiva has 108 dances and each dance is one of two types of tandav: anand tandav and urdhva tandav.