Bare feet slap the ground, thrashing brass ankle bells in a fervid rhythm.

It’s called Kathak, and its students say there isn’t quite anything like it. Equal parts performance art, philosophy, historical narrative and cardiovascular workout, local instructor Pratibha Patel said Kathak fuses graceful, delicate movements with strong turns and footwork.

The ancient art form that originated roughly two millennia ago with bards and minstrels in northern India communicating the great mythologies of their country through a rhythmic, complex dance will be on full display Nov. 1 in Folsom.

That’s when the local branch of the Chhandam School of Kathak Dance celebrates its second anniversary in the Sacramento region with performances at Natoma Station Elementary School. The free event will be held in the elementary school’s multi-purpose room from 2 to 4 p.m. and is open to the public.

“I think in this area our school is known for exemplary performances, so we want the community to see what caliber performance we can have,” Patel says.

That caliber will be raised by the attendance of Pandit Chitresh Das, revered by many as the art form’s guru, as well as a performance by the Chhandam Youth Company he personally trains.

“The way he teaches the dance, it can almost be yogic,” Patel enthuses.

Pandit Das, artistic director of San Francisco-based Chhandam school, created Kathak yoga and has toured internationally to preserve the unique art form that mixes Hindu and Muslim influences and bases its steps on what he calls a “tremendously organic math.”

Over the summer, Pandit Das became a recipient of the 2009 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, which honors folk and traditional arts.

“It’s the only dance form in the world, probably, that (comes) out of these two cultures,” he said of the dual religious influences. “It is necessary to (preserve) an art form that has such scientific and artistic (merits).”

Pandit Das has spent 40 years spreading that message, both through individual performances and his school, which he founded in 1980. He began training in the classical art form at the age of 9 and represents, Patel says, one of the last living examples of the guru-disciple relationship.

“We are very blessed and fortunate to have Panditji coming to this event in Folsom,” said Aishwarya Bat, the local branch’s liaison between the school and parents.

Pandit Das will also demonstrate Kathak Yoga techniques, Bat says. Patel’s students will also perform.

Patel has been teaching the art of Kathak in the Sacramento region since November 2007, first at a studio in Folsom and, when the lease ran out in September, at the El Dorado Dance Academy in El Dorado Hills. Her class has grown to 26 students, according to Bat, who works at Intel Corp. as a software validation architect. Patel says her students come from all around the region, including Folsom, El Dorado Hills, Elk Grove and Davis.

Patel offers a beginning children’s class for kids between the age of 5 and 8, and a class for beginning adults, which she says features students as young as 9 and those well into their 40s.

“I have a lot of mother-daughter students,” she said. “I love it.”

An American-born woman of Indian descent, Patel’s parents maintained close ties to their rich culture. But it wasn’t until Patel found Kathak — and its lauded maestro, Pandit Das — that she realized just how rich her ancestral nation’s history really was.

“He opened up a window into another part of our culture,” she said. “It’s about empowering yourself. Good enough is never acceptable.”