By calling me a "sell out" you assumed that I am a hindu. Curious, because I have not specified my religious beliefs on this forum, ever.
It is a common but empty retort of the intellectually hollow, to call the other person's perfectly sensible point as "politically correct rant" and so on. If you are not interested in it, why bother responding?
Bharatanatyam was not a dance "performed for the gods" - that shows a lot of ignorance on your part. And even if it was (which it wasnt), it's origins are irrelevant, because today it is a lot more than simply a religious ritual, which it never was. Carnatic music was indeed performed for the gods initially, but people of all faiths enjoy and practice it today, from KJ Yesudas to many other luminaries.
Bharatanatyam's origins were a dedication to the elements, especially the primordial element of fire. But more than that, it is a tradition that goes all the way back to Bharata's Natyashastra, the pre eminent text on dance ever written. It was mostly an adaptation of the 'Kaisiki' style. There is a LOT, a helluva lot of theory about bharatanathyam, about the interplay between Nritta, Nritya and Natya. It is philosophical, transcendent, spiritual, universal, aesthetic, and a lot more things.
Other classical dance forms have also been adopted by christians. For example, there are Kathakalis performed depicting the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Such synchronicity and assimilation may be beyond you, but not beyond some of us.
Your reducing it into "It was a dance for the gods" is quite characterestic of the ignorant right wingers who classify everything as hindu or non hindu, religious or irreligious, ours versus theirs and so on.
