--- title: "Himachali nati basic footwork steps" description: "Himachali nati basic footwork steps for a linked line. Bihu, rouf, and thiruvathira are different files." canonical_url: "https://dancermirror.com/guides/practise-indian-folk-dances-nati-bihu-rouf-thiruvathira" md_url: "https://dancermirror.com/guides/practise-indian-folk-dances-nati-bihu-rouf-thiruvathira.md" last_updated: "2026-10-24" status: published --- # Himachali nati basic footwork steps Himachali nati basic footwork steps matter because your hands are already holding the dancers beside you. Step the other way and you tangle their arms. Kullu, Kinnaur, and Sirmaur do not share one diagram. Bihu, rouf, and thiruvathira are not nati. Each team has a clip. Use that clip. **Short answer.** Himachali nati basic footwork steps are a linked line, so the foot you step is also the person beside you. Regions do not share one count. Watch the clip your team sent, name the direction, and test one step while holding a scarf out to the side. A facing video swaps that step. Bihu, Kashmiri rouf, and thiruvathira are other dances with other files. Dancer Mirror does not download videos. - Nati lines link arms. The neighbour feels your wrong step immediately. - Regions differ. The team leader's clip wins. - Bihu, rouf, and thiruvathira each need their own file. **Takeaway.** Learn the step that pulls the neighbour's hand. Ask which region the line is. Do not paste four folk dances into one evening because a college fest has four slots. ## Which region's line is this? Ask. Kullu nati and a Kinnauri line do not owe you the same dip. Wedding guests who 'know nati' from a different valley will step their home version into your line and tangle it with confidence. The person who called the rehearsal names the version. Everyone else puts their version away for the night. Hold a scarf in the hand that will hold a neighbour. Step the clip's first travel. If the scarf yanks, you went against the line. Bedroom practice without the scarf lies, because a wrong step feels like dancing until someone is attached to you. The picture flip is the [mirror guide](https://dancermirror.com/guides/how-to-mirror-a-dance-video). The line makes a wrong flip into a pulled shoulder. ## The hold is the step In many nati lines the arms are crossed, in front or behind, with the next dancer. You cannot fix the arms after the feet if the feet are already travelling the wrong way. Feet first, at a walk, holding the scarf. Arms second, in the shape the clip uses. If the clip is a wide shot of a festival, you cannot see the feet. Ask for a closer file or stand at the edge of rehearsal and film the ankles, with permission. A wedding lawn is not the world-record circle. You need the phrase your group will repeat, not the history of the dance. Ten honest steps that match the person on your left will look like a wedding. A researched solo will look like a guest who got lost. 1. Ask which valley or which team's nati this is. 2. Hold a scarf the way you will hold a neighbour. 3. Walk one phrase in the clip's direction. 4. Add the arm link only when the scarf stays slack. 5. Write the direction in the group chat. ## What about the other three dances? Bihu, in Assam, is a group dance on the dhol with hip and hand accents. A college team syncs a line. The failure is a row that flicks the wrong way, not a Himachali arm-link. Use the Bihu file. The short encyclopedia page tells you the dance exists. It does not give your team's count. Rouf, in Kashmir, is often two lines of women, arms at the waist, one line facing the other. Facing lines make one side look like a mirror of the other even before a camera gets involved. Learn your line, not both lines from one screenshot. Thiruvathira, around Onam, is a circle of women around a lamp, with claps. The lamp is the centre. The team decides the direction. I will not invent a clockwise law here. The team leader's clip is the law for this year. A facing clip can still reverse your clap. Thiruvathira, as a festival dance rather than a step list, is noted [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruvathira). Bihu, likewise, is noted [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bihu_dance). Your file still wins. ## Four fest slots are four rehearsals A cultural night that programmes all four is four costumes and four directions. Practising them in one afternoon teaches your feet a compromise that belongs to none of them. Give each dance its own evening, or cut the programme. The audience cannot tell that you were efficient. They can tell that the line pulled apart. Dancer Mirror does not download videos. Name the files with the dance, not with 'fest'. You will open the wrong one under pressure. ## A circle is not always garba Garba's circle and thiruvathira's circle both have a centre and a clap. The hands, the songs, and the reason for the lamp are different. If you reuse a garba plan and change the name, you will clap the wrong shape around a lamp. Read the team clip. Nati stays on this page. ## Sources - [What the app does today](https://dancermirror.com/features) - [How it works](https://dancermirror.com/how-it-works) - [Thiruvathira](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruvathira) - [Bihu dance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bihu_dance) Practise the side you see. Download from the stores linked on the download page.