 It was traditionally a dance where a few men would stand in a row with two kerchiefs perform rhythmic steps to the musical accompaniment, with the number of dancers increasing; over the past ten years women have also started performing this dance.Typically, the musical accompaniment is the Thavil and the performers have coloured handkerchiefs tied to their fingers and wear ankle bells.Oyilattam is one of the folk arts identified for mainstreaming by the Tamil university.