Let’s test your knowledge on the history of dance. Any guesses?
I’d put my money on Bharatanatyam — tied to the Natyashastra and temple practice, and still taught worldwide (quick primer: Bharatanatyam - Wikipedia). From my classes, watching for the “aramandi” and basic adavus is a neat way to see how its vocabulary maps to old temple sculpture. Some point to Aboriginal ceremonial dances as older, but they’re not really codified — do you count those, @OP?
But i’d put Bharatanatyam up there — its roots tie back to the ‘Natya Shastra’, and the adavus I learned line up with Chola bronze poses; if you’re weighing ‘oldest’, try matching mudras/stances to those sculptures to spot the continuity. Some say Odissi edges it in lineage — what do you think?