Mohiniattam dance has its name derived from two words Mohini and Attam. Mohini means the lady who can hypnotize with her looks and Attam means graceful body movements or dance. An art revived in Kerala around the 19th century is unique in its own way. The dressing style, movements, music are not in anyways similar to other South Indian classical dance forms.

Mohiniattam is done only by females; there are no male partners to accompany in Mohiniattam. In the olden days it was performed only by one dancer not in groups or with a partner. However, it can now be observed that, to add variations to the dance there are group dances too. The dancer wears a cream color costume with golden borders unlike in other dance form where the costumes are not color specific.

The dance moves in a slow pace with fast movements in between. The music set up for Mohiniattam is called Choll and the language used to narrate the story is a mixture of Malayalam and Sanskrit, which is known as Manipravalam. The focus area for Mohiniattam is the visual expressions and footworks.

The themes for Mohiniattam are based around the nature or expression of love. Mohiniattam still have a lot more to be achieved in terms of popularity. It is a known art form in India but deserves to get more exposure world-wide. It does offer some variety to other forms of Indian classical dances where presentation and themes are concerned.