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DANCING (NOT SO MUCH) BY THE BOOK: MAPPING A NEW DISCOURSE AROUND THE PRACTICE OF INDIAN CLASSICAL MARIE-JOSÉE BLANCHARD CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY [email protected]

he idea of classical Indian dance as embodied through the dancing female body: T “religious” or “spiritual” is a complex one. “Classical dance,” she states, “is readily turned We cannot assume that dance is a religious to because it is already understood—and that by practice simply because the performed stories a particular class of Indians [upper cast and relate to the lives of Hindu gods and goddesses; middle-class workers]—as a transmitter of what nor can we deny that dance forms like is most representative and prestigious about embody deep Hindu and Indian Indian civilisation,”2 thus validating a type of values both at home and in the diaspora. It is a discourse that fits the Indian nationalist agenda fact that Bharatanatyam and other styles, even of the mid-twentieth century. as they are taught today, carry a heavy baggage What I want to address in this paper is of classical terms and aesthetic this complex balance—and one might say concepts as well as religious and spiritual paradox—between the classical and religious references—elements that are not necessarily ideals of Indian texts and traditions on the one relevant to today’s Indian youth, but that are hand, and on the other, the realities of practice still carried on as a powerful heritage that and embodied experience in the 21st century’s defines their identity in and abroad. As Indian diaspora living in , and their highlighted by Janet O’Shea, Indian classical respective roles in shaping the discourse about dance forms often provide “a means for and spirituality in and around Indian immigrants to maintain their social identity in classical dance. Is the classical Indian dance of diaspora,” especially for parents who Bharatanatyam considered a “religious” form of “encourage their daughters to study performing art in the Canadian diaspora today? natyam in the hopes of their performing an How does the normative discourse about , or solo debut,” thus marking “their classical Indian dance, which often focuses on entry into a middle-class diasporic Indian notions such as spirituality, devotion and community”.1 In this diasporic environment, as religion, diverge from the embodied realities of Ram argues, dance styles like Indian dance in the diaspora, and what does this Bharatanatyam in fact reflect the past lives of gap suggest? Indian immigrants, a form of lost identity that is

2 Kalpana Ram, “Dancing the Past into Life: The , 1 Janet O’Shea, At Home in the World: Bharata Nṛtta and of Immigrant Existence,” The Natyam on the Global Stage (Middletown: Wesleyan, Australian Journal of Anthropology 11, no. 3 (2000): 2007), 3. 264.

Symposia 9 Special Issue (2018): 14-30. © The Author 2013. Published by University of Toronto. All rights reserved. 15 BLANCHARD / DANCING (NOT SO MUCH) BY THE BOOK

In fact, today’s practice of classical the 20th century, colonizers and Indian Indian dance is still essentially informed by reformers alike believed they could separate the more traditional, popular thoughts about Hindu religion from the art form by simply removing religion and mythology. Yet, the increasing dance from temples and transferring it to the exposure of Indian dancers to various other public stage. Obviously, because of the styles, be they inside their own tradition ubiquitous nature of devotion and the divine in (, , etc.) or outside of it the Indian landscape, the public stage cannot be (, , etc.), raises described as purely secular, nor as wholly questions that were not possible before the religious, for that matter. What I want to internationalisation of classical dance: “What highlight in this paper, though, is that the use of does my own dance practice mean to me?” such categories and the association between “How do I situate myself as part of traditional temple rituals and religious symbols in dance Indian dance when abroad?” Classical Indian are still realities in the world of Indian classical aesthetic theory, which had been (re)introduced dance and the discourse that describes it: in into the training of classical dance during the continuously reviving the dance tradition, as put 1930’s, is now helping performers answer these forth by O’Shea,3 dancers in India and abroad questions, but in a more embodied way: theory inevitably address amorphous concepts such as is transformed, absorbed into practice, to form a religion, spirituality, devotion, secularity, more comprehensive understanding of what it tradition and classicism4. means to perform a dance style so closely This paper seeks to nuance this associated with Hindu religion. As such, the normative discourse around Indian classical distinction between the religious/devotional and dance by examining a variety of approaches to the spiritual—a demarcation that has been at the it in the diaspora. In interrogating the religious core of the Bharatanatyam revolution and which essence of classical Indian dance in today’s was pushed forward by professional dancers diasporic dancing community, more questions such as Rukmini and T. in will arise around the topic of embodiment, a the early to mid 20th century—is essential to term that appears to both encompass and move today’s practitioners because they are beyond the ambiguity of words such as performing a secular art in a secular global “religion,” “religiosity,” “spirituality” and world that could easily be exoticized and “secularity.” Yet, these words are still part of spiritualized. the discourse around classical Indian dance and Evidently, the concept of religion itself will be referred to throughout this essay as is still ambiguous in India, where many legitimate categories used by dancers to religious traditions flourished centuries before Christian colonizers introduced the terms “religion” and “spirituality.” Yet, such 3 O’Shea, Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage. categories and understanding of devotion were 4 On the topic of the concepts of tradition, classicism transposed onto local and indigenous belief and authenticity in , see Anandi systems, limiting religious practices to Salinas, “Building a Natya : Individual Voices in an Evolving Public Memory,” in Scripting Dance in institutionalized locations like temples, even Contemporary India, eds. Maratt Mythili Anoop and though Hindu practices, for instance, go far Varun Gulati (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2016), 61- beyond these places of cult. As a result, during 84. SYMPOSIA 16 describe their practice. What dancers bring to spirituality, as well as theory and practice, in the the discussion is a more nuanced point of view practice and discourse around Bharatanatyam. I about these often-delimitated categories: will demonstrate how the practice of Indian performers, through the embodied knowledge classical dance today is rooted both in the they share with their public, are able to numerous traditions that contribute to and complicate these categories and the overall actualize body memories, as well as the discourse that exists around classical Indian embodied experience of everyday life in the dance. The apparent tension between theory and diaspora. The discourse that results from this practice in dance will unfold as dance embodied, everyday practice of Bharatanatyam practitioners clearly show that the practice of is one that does not rely directly on textual and Indian classical dance is all about the emotional Sanskrit references or on Hindu religiosity as process of a performance rather than its the Indian ideal would suggest. While the narrative outcome. By putting more emphasis narrative around Bharatanatyam—both as on the process, dancers also seem to focus danced narratives and as the discourse increasingly on what, for lack of a better term, surrounding the practice of dance—often they refer to as spirituality, here defined as a appears religious in nature, the practice or more-than-human feeling or sense involved in process of dance is rooted in spirituality (or, the rigorous practice of dance (closely simply, the pleasure of performance), and, as connected to aesthetic pleasure [rasa]). This is such, does not necessarily reflect the normative sometimes understood as a , a rigorous religion-based discourse around Bharatanatyam. sacred practice that transforms the everyday Thus, the discourse about the dance does not body into an aesthetic body––contrasted over (necessarily) reflect its practice. and against “religion” or “religiosity,” which dancers see as the concrete ritual practices Forging a Discourse: The Indian Post- involved in an institutionalized religious Independence Reform and the (Re)Birth of tradition, or, sometimes, as simply the subject Bharatanatyam matter of danced narratives. The process of dance, the repetition of movements through To understand Indian classical dance and the practice, it seems, creates a form of well-being religious discourse that has been built around it often associated by dancers with the word today, we need to first turn to the history of “spirituality,” and not “religion,” “devotion” or Bharatanatyam, a dance form that had a “religiosity.” significant impact in the redefinition of other I begin this paper by giving a short classical styles in India. As it is known today, historical overview of the “birth” of Bharatanatyam is a form of classical dance- Bharatanatyam and its evolution from a temple drama that combines “pure” or technical dance ritual to a performing art, so that readers better [nritta] with expressive dance [abhinaya], using understand the normative discourse that has codified hand gestures [] and other body been built around Indian classical dance. I will movements [angika] as means of then use the dancing experience of three communicating emotions [] to the informants and professional Bharatanatyam audience and thus sharing a narrative, which is dancers—Julie, Neena and Samyuktha—to look often religious in nature insofar as it draws from at the tensions that exist between religion and Hindu gods, heroes and devotional narratives. 17 BLANCHARD / DANCING (NOT SO MUCH) BY THE BOOK

The main goal of this performing art is rasa Schechner7, a splicing together of selected (taste or aesthetic pleasure), which results from ‘strips’ of performative behavior in a manner the combination of environmental factors that simultaneously creates a new practice and [vibhava], visible reactions to those factors invents an historical one).”8 Before the 1930s, [] and other transitory emotions and Bharatanatyam was called sadir (solo female states [vyabhicharibhava], often synthetized dance), (village, “folkloric” dance of the through dominant emotions [sthayibhava].5 dasi) or sometimes dasi attam (dance of the Historically, Bharatanatyam has been dasi), words that referred to dance as performed associated with religious temple rituals and thus by female temple servants [], but also equated with a form of religious practice. Yet, by village dancers [dasi], “a more common as a dance form, Bharatanatyam had existed for only a few hundred years before it was officially instituted in the 1930s and 1940s.6 Indian “classical” dance is a relatively new concept that took form during nationalist efforts th in the first half of the 20 century: speaking of a 7 Richard Schechner, Between and “revival,” then, “is a drastically reductive Anthropology (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985), 69. linguistic summary of a complex process,” 8 Matthew Allen, “Rewriting the Script for South since we could easily speak as well about “a re- Indian Dance,” Drama Review 41, no. 3 (1997): 63–4. population (one social community appropriating In this essential read, Allen offers a thorough and a practice from another), a re-construction critical look at the “revival” of Bharatanatyam, focusing on the role of , her (altering and replacing elements of repertoire husband , as well as the Theosophical and ), a re-naming (from nautch to Society and the Indian nationalist movement, which other terms to bharata natyam), a re-situation was in fact founded on orientalist and Victorian precepts. Yet, this dance “revival” was not solely the (from temple court, and salon to the public work of Rukmini Devi and the , stage), and a re-storation (as used by as two other groups contributed to the movement: the Madras Academy, and hereditary musicians [periya melam], dancers and their teachers [china melam] (see Peterson and Soneji, 2008), often represented by the devadasi dancer, Balasaraswati. Rather than focusing on the “classical” and “” of dance like the Theosophical Society did, the 5 Chapter VI on Sentiments [rasa] in Manomohan high-status members of the Ghosh, transl. & ed., The Natyashastra: A Treatise on highlighted the ethnic and folkloric aspects of Dramaturgy and Histrionics Ascribed to dance, while the other group fought for the continuity Bharata-muni, Vol. 1 (Chapters I–XXVII) (Calcutta: of the hereditary dance tradition, going back to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1951). For a truly work of the Tanjore Quartet in the late 19th century enlightening discussion on rasa and a comprehensive (O’Shea 2007: 16). For a more detailed analysis of the history and analysis of rasa theory, see Sheldon role of the Tanjore Quartet in the revitalisation of Pollock, transl. & ed., A Rasa Reader: Classical Indian dance, see the first chapter of Soneji, Unfinished Aesthetics (New York: Columbia University Press, Gestures; for an account of the role of the Madras 2016). Music Academy in the revival of dance, see Avanthi 6 See Davesh Soneji, ed., Bharatanatyam: A Reader Meduri, “Bharatanatyam as a World Historical Form,” (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010); as well as in Bharatanaytam, ed. Soneji, 253-72; for another Davesh Soneji, Unfinished Gestures: , perspective on the history of the revitalisation of Memory, and Modernity in (Chicago: Bharatanatyam––past and ongoing––see O’Shea, University of Chicago Press, 2012). Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage. SYMPOSIA 18 class of northern dancing girls”9 that were not more than on the Abhinaya Darpana (“Mirror of associated with major temples. With time, and Gesture,” more popular today in dance partly because of the English colonization, pedagogy). This standardization also included devadasi solo performances, often done in the implementation of parameters for the private salons and which focused on an erotic tradition’s transmission. Since members of this repertoire such as javali,10 were considered revival movement were also part of nationalist inappropriate and vulgar. Not only were efforts to redefine India’s identity following its devadasis slowly confused with village dancers independence, classical Indian dance became [dasi], but they also had an ambiguous marital the perfect vehicle to solidify “pure” Indian status: they were symbolically wedded to the values—in this case, mainly Hindu values and presiding divinity of a temple from a young age aesthetics. By creating an agenda in which and never married to a man, providing them Bharatanatyam could be taught in national with a form of independence that was not schools through a very structured curriculum, accessible to other women. In order to survive focusing the training on standardized technique, financially, they took patrons and were thus Rukmini Devi was able to revive this traditional eventually identified with prostitution and form of knowledge. The devadasis’ sadir thus sensuality, giving rise to the anti-nautch and became the Bharatanatyam of “respectable” anti-devadasi movement of the late 19th century middle-class women, a classical dance that was and the subsequent 1947 ban of the supposedly at the source of all other dance consecration of devadasis in temples. forms in India and even pre-dated the devadasis Following these events, the temple themselves. Dance was now focusing on the dancers’ caste was doomed to slowly disappear, progression of a narrative expressed through which is the case today. In an effort to save the technique and on the religious aesthetics of a art form, several middle-class people led by story, and not so much on the cultivation of Rukmini Devi Arundale and the Theosophical emotional states and the individual expression Society decided to rescue the practice by of emotions through isolated romantic and standardizing classical Indian dance.11 This sexual episodes, which was the case in sadir. standardization meant the Sanskritization of the In short, Bharatanatyam was forged by of devadasis (giving Sanskrit borrowing the structure of a native dance names to all movements and technical terms of [sadir], not quite purifying it but re-introducing sadir), and relying heavily on the Natyashastra it into “a more ‘proper’ [middle] class”12, and (the treatise on Hindu dramaturgy and then turning to classical Sanskrit sources—the histrionics, sometimes called the “fifth Veda”) Natyashastra in this case—to legitimize the art form as a classical and authentic style. Susan A. Reed stresses how many other colonized cultures followed the same pattern: 9 Amrit Srinivasan, “Reform or Conformity? Temple ‘Prostitution’ and the Community in the Madras “recontextualization of dance,” she says, Presidency,” in Bharatanatyam, ed. Soneji, 152. “usually entails the domestication of dance, the 10 Soneji, Bharatanatyam; Soneji, Unfinished Gestures. taming of its potentially disorderly elements. 11 See Amrit Srinivasan, “Reform and Revival: The Devadasi and her Dance,” Economic and Political Weekly 20, no. 44 (1985): 1869–76; see also Srinivasan, “Reform or Conformity?” 12 Srinivasan, “Reform or Conformity?” 157. 19 BLANCHARD / DANCING (NOT SO MUCH) BY THE BOOK

[…] Regulating purity and authenticity in and performed for a human audience (not for folkloric dance in a patriarchal and protective the gods in temples).16 However, in the second mode is a common feature of state and elite part of the 20th century, Bharatanatyam interventions.”13 As a result, nationalist underwent another transformation in which the reformers, heavily influenced by Rukmini art form reclaimed its religious heritage and Devi’s work, chose a specific type of dance as went back to the temple, while also bringing the the state’s ideal performing art, with the aim of temple back on the stage by inserting props communicating to the world the core values of a such as temple backgrounds, images of saints new India—one that promoted as its and statues of gods (more frequently the main religion and Sanskrit as its intellectual ).17 Anne-Marie Gaston recognizes that language. The performing art of Bharatanatyam, this emphasis on the religious aspects of dance as built from the Sanskrit treatise of the results from “a general attempt to validate the Natyashastra, embodied all those values: it antiquity of the dance by emphasizing the properly summarized all of India’s ideal social, religious rather than the secular elements.”18 It religious and political structure, gender is the result of an auto-exoticization, a way for relationships, gender and class behaviours and colonized cultures to reshape a form of dance to stances. Bharatanatyam embodied a precolonial suit Western aesthetic sensibilities, or, in Reed’s authentic past or a golden age; it became, words, a “process by which the colonized come Teresa Hubel says, “an emblem of Indianness designed to display modern India’s ties to its 14 gloriously ancient past,” the symbol of India’s rich cultural and religious heritage par excellence. 16 Of course, defining classical Indian dance as a According to O’Shea, Rukmini Devi secular art means the delimitation of public (non- religious), private and religious spaces, a concept contributed to legitimizing Bharatanatyam on foreign to India and its many , where the the national and international stage by divine manifests itself throughout the land in tangible separating devotion from sexuality, focussing in and deliberate ways. As such, the Indian stage could be 15 religious in many ways. However, most classical turn on Bharatanatyam’s “spirituality.” Indian artists I’ve spoken with are clear about their art However, Bharatanatyam is technically a being a form of non-religious entertainment, even secular art: it was deliberately striped of its though the subject matter is most often religious in nature. religious contexts, designed for the public stage, 17 The Nataraja is the god ’s dancing form, a figure that transformed into a quintessential Indian symbol when popularized in the West by Ananda Coomaraswamy in the early 20th century. Over time, it 13 Susan A. Reed, “The Politics and Poetics of Dance,” has transformed into Bharatanatyam’s central icon. See Annual Review of Anthropology 27 (1998): 512. Avanthi Meduri, “Temple Stage as Historical Allegory 14 Teresa Hubel, “The High Cost of Dancing: When the in Bharatanatyam: Rukmini Devi as Dancer-Historian,” Indian Women’s Movement Went after the Devadasis,” in Performing Pasts: Reinventing in Modern in Bharatanatyam, ed. Soneji, 175; this piece offers a South India, ed. Indira V. Peterson and Davesh Soneji detailed account of the intricate links that were created (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008), 133–64; between the revival of Bharatanatyam and nationalist see also Meduri, “Bharatanatyam as World Historical agendas, elements I refer to as “post-independence Form,” and Allen, “Rewriting the Script”. ideals/values”, “a-temporal nationalist narratives ” or 18 Anne-Marie Gaston, “Dance and the Hindu Woman: “nationalist agenda” throughout this essay. Bharatanatyam Re-ritualized,” in Bharatanatyam, ed. 15 O’Shea, Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage. Soneji, 276. SYMPOSIA 20 to represent themselves to themselves through performer, especially in the diaspora, is trying the lenses of the colonizers.”19 to create their own understanding of dance, one that rarely refers to religion, but more often to Religion in Discourse/Spirituality and Pleasure spirituality or to aesthetic pleasure. Spirituality in Practice in this context translates as a special feeling during practice that is hard to put into words—a Despite the efforts of many sentiment that is, in fact, often associated with Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak, and other aesthetic pleasure [rasa]. scholars-practitioners to re-contextualize, The current classical Indian dance politicize, and feminize the history of classical landscape in eastern Canada, as seen through Indian dance in the past 30 years, it appears that the eyes of three women22 I interviewed there is still a valorization of classical and between August and October of 2017, religious norms in dance to this day. In fact, exemplifies this modulating discourse. My Bharatanatyam (and other styles) has become discussions with Julie (Bharatanatyam, the perfect tool for young Indian women in the Tanjavur style) and her partner Jonathan, diaspora to learn about their own culture and Samyuktha (Bharatanatyam, Kalakshetra style), Hindu values. Dancers both in India and abroad and Neena (Bharatanatyam and Odissi) still use terms like “purity,” “classical,” exemplify differing relationships to religion and “traditional,” “spiritual” or “religious” when spirituality. Most of them do not identify as referring to their own practice.20 Some of them religious, even if they were brought up in a also argue that dance can be equated with a religious environment. For some of them, the personal devotional exercise, thus reinforcing absence of religion in their personal life ideas about dance being a spiritual art, as seen motivates a separation from religion when previously with Rukmini Devi’s work.21 Yet, approaching the spiritual and religious aspects my research shows evidence that each of classical dance; for others, dance is the means by which they learned about Hinduism,

and being agnostic does not interfere with such 19 Reed, “Politics and Poetics of Dance,” 515; see also material. Nevertheless, all three women engage Anita Kumar, “What’s the Matter? ’s to some extent with the notion that classical (Re)Collection of Race, Nationhood, and Gender,” in Indian dance is spiritual/religious, classical, and Bharatanatyam, ed. Soneji, 325–57. 20 See Salinas, “Building a ”. traditional. Each one intimately delineates what 21 A good example of this perspective on dance would religion means within classical dance, whether be Pallabi Chakravorty’s work, a Kathak scholar- in relation to technique, expressive dance practitioner who insists on the spiritual and devotional nature of her dance practice. See Pallabi Chakravorty, [abhinaya], narratives, or process. The growing “Dance, Pleasure and Indian Women as Multisensorial emphasis they put on spirituality or the Subjects,” Visual Anthropology 17, no. 1 (2004): 1–17; pleasure/joy they get from their rigorous artistic Chakravorty, “The Exalted Body in North Indian Music and Dance,” in Performing Ecstasy: The Poetics and Politics of , ed. Pallabi Chakravorty and Scott Kugle (New Delhi: Manohar 22 Each one of these informants has practiced dance for Publishers & Distributors, 2009), 93–104; at least 15 years, some for close to 30 years, and all Chakravorty, “Moved to Dance: Remix, Rasa, and a have received instruction from India, some from New India,” Visual Anthropology 22, no. 2–3 (2009): Canada as well, either from a dance school or a private 211–28. teacher []. 21 BLANCHARD / DANCING (NOT SO MUCH) BY THE BOOK practice, I argue, is the result of a focus on at Kalakshetra,25 clearly supports this embodied tradition and, more importantly, understanding of dance as spiritual. Discussing process, the “becoming” of dance, in their the history of Bharatanatyam and its relation to practice, as opposed to the theory of dance that the Mughal invasions and British rule, she molds the discourse. expressed how Bharatanatyam (or rather, sadir) had “kind of lost its value, its sanctity.” Religion, Spirituality, and the Spaces In- Consequently, there was a need “to bring it Between back to its original form.” The linear, technical style of Kalakshetra made Bharatanatyam look Many scholars23 have already “more spiritual,” she argued. In fact, Rukmini established that Bharatanatyam is a secular art, Devi “brought a lot of spirituality” to the style, and more specifically that, while the content of says Samyuktha. “I wouldn’t say religiosity,” dance is religious in nature, its practice is not, she specifies, “but spirituality.”26 When I asked even though the dance’s aesthetics are what spirituality and religion meant to her, she embedded in and culture. answered: Rukmini Devi and T. Balasaraswati both focused on what they called the spiritual aspect Spirituality is […] like a feeling, it’s like of dance, although in very different ways. smell. You can’t necessarily say that ‘I While the latter focused on the dance’s love and I am spiritual.’ devotional aspect in practice, the former Spirituality is also about energy, emphasized the spiritual, non-carnal nature of spirituality is also about sunlight, it’s dance while highlighting its secular, from what you gather. Spirituality can entertaining side, thus aligning with post- also be about positivity. […] independence nationalist agendas (and, Religiousness is different. Religiousness ironically, with problematic Christian colonial is the actual pujas, it’s the actual specific frameworks that sparked certain Indian reform deities, things like that.27 movements).24 My informant Samyuktha, who now lives in Toronto but grew up in , India, and received her Bharatanatyam training

25 The in , , India, is a world-renowned dance school created by Rukmini Devi Arundale in 1936. The first of its 23 See, for instance, Anne-Marie Gaston, Bharata kind to focus its training on Bharatanatyam, Natyam: From Temple to Theatre (New Delhi: Kalakshetra offers a strict curriculum that both reflects Manohar, 1997) and Ananya Chatterjea, “In Search of traditional teacher-to-student instruction [guru-shishya a Secular in Contemporary Indian Dance: A parampara] as well as more modern and Western Continuing Journey,” Journal 36, no. pedagogy. As such, I have come to realize that 2 (2004): 102–16. graduate students from Kalakshetra, where theory has 24 Balasaraswati is the last devadasi to have fought for made its way into practice, are not only experts in the safeguard of this artistic form in the Tanjavur style terms of dance technique [nritta], but also often during Bharatanatyam’s “revival” in the 1930’s- embody the nationalist discourse around dance that was 1940’s. See O’Shea, At Home in the World; see also born alongside the post-independence Indian reform. Rukmini Devi Arundale, “The Spiritual Background of 26 Samyuktha Sharath Putambekhar (Bharatanatyam Indian Dance” and T. Balasaraswati, “Bharata dancer), in an interview with the author, October 2017. Natyam,” in Bharatanatyam, ed. Soneji, 192–204. 27 Ibid. SYMPOSIA 22

The distinction Samyuktha raises is Bharatanatyam’s visible form, but rather in the emblematic of Indian classical dancers, who process it involves. Dancing becomes a rigorous generally believe that their performing art is not practice inscribed in the body, a process that, religious, because it does not represent a through repetition and hard physical work, concrete religious practice performed in transforms into a spiritual or sacred exercise, a temples for the gods. However, dancers often discipline of the body that transcends the mention the physical exercise of dance as being regular realm of everyday life. This process of “spiritual,” and/or including spiritual elements. sadhana is what Julie and Jonathan thought In the case of Samyuktha, spirituality is corresponded the closest to a Western identified with the linear movements of conception of “spirituality.” Yet, it is often the Bharatanatyam and the more conservative case that Indian classical dance and music are representation of romantic episodes. This is presented outside of India with an “orientalist opposed to more fluid and “sensual” depictions aura,” as Jonathan puts it, which negates the once portrayed by devadasis, or, one could true sadhana behind the art form.28 speculate, even in current classical styles like Odissi, in which the basic posture of the body, On the other hand, dance does not have , emphasizes the roundness of the hips to become a spiritual practice to be fulfilling; in a more sensual manner. But spirituality, non-spiritual persons, even non-, can according to Samyuktha, is not only about the become proficient and communicative visible aspects of dance. It is also a sense, like a Bharatanatyam dancers. My collaborator Neena, sense organ. Spirituality is a tool we can use to a Bharatanatyam dancer (with some training in perceive things around us, a way to gain a Odissi), was born in Toronto to a Hindu family different perspective on things—and most and received training from a renowned dance importantly, something that we can learn and academy in the city. She was not raised in a apply. Spirituality is not a given. It becomes particularly religious context, so what she embodied with the help of life experiences. learned about Hindu religion came from her For my informant Julie, a dance classes. When she teaches dance to young Bharatanatyam dancer from Montreal, children, therefore, she elaborates on the spirituality is also embodied through technique, fantastic aspects of the Hindu mythology and but in a slightly different way from Samyuktha. delves deep into descriptive details: Julie situated spirituality in the discipline and the practice required by Indian dance. For her for kids now, it’s like… ‘let’s tell a and her partner Jonathan, a santoor player and story!’ […] for them it’s like a fantasy vocalist, music and dance are about sadhana, a story that they read in their story books. (spiritual) discipline, as well as riyaz, rigorous […] ‘Yeah, there’s this story about this practice. Jonathan specified that music is not big monster, this elephant who walks religious, sacred nor spiritual; it is purely around, and this guy who lives in the sky secular and designed for entertainment, even if the narrative is religious. In this sense, a rigorous dance or musical practice can become 28 Julie Beaulieu (Bharatanatyam and contemporary a form of physical discipline, a practice of dancer) and Jonathan Voyer (santoor musician), in an spiritual nature. The spiritual does not reside in interview with the author, August 2017. 23 BLANCHARD / DANCING (NOT SO MUCH) BY THE BOOK

and has water coming out of his head!’ place,” the “pedestrian place,” and the You know, all these things are just… “performance place”;31 in other words, classical they’re just part of the story, part of the Indian dance is the merging of the religious, the fantasy story.29 mundane, and the aesthetic. Nonetheless, Neena believes that Since her students come from a variety Bharatanatyam is not about religion, but about a of faith traditions, and perhaps because she has culture, about an upbringing. Indeed, as not lived in a particularly religious context, discussed by Anyaya Chatterjea, and as Neena tries to explain religious concepts like highlighted by Neena, it is virtually impossible devotion [] using examples from their to remove religion from classical Indian dance, everyday life and relying on their basic notion because “the cultural and religious are so of God, whatever their religious background. closely intertwined in this context, it often “It’s hard to teach that [bhakti], especially if seems that voiding out any religious association you’ve grown outside of the cultural context,” calls for a cancellation of any movement that is she explains. “[But I would say] ‘Do you really culturally specific, that has clear roots in Indian wish sometimes that you could have something cultural practice.”32 But for Neena, teaching a that, you know, you want mom to buy you dance form with a strong religious heritage in a something very, very much?’ Just like ‘please, secular world is not an issue. She emphasizes please, please!’ [hands together, begging].”30 that children, even those who come from a Neena uses her own experience as a second- Hindu upbringing, learn mythology and generation NRI (non-resident Indian) to her religious narratives as any other cultural advantage in her teachings, making a phenomenon or story. “Regardless of the with children by using elements of religion of the children in the class, it makes no their lived experience they can relate to. difference. […] Some of them […] have heard Even though Neena does not consider these stories, or grew up with these stories, or herself a religious or practicing person, she read those stories, as just that, just stories […] finds that denying Bharatanatyam’s spirituality without a religious context.”33 By being or religious history would be a mistake, because exposed to their parents’ aesthetic tastes and the fact that Bharatanatyam comes from a preferences, children naturally learn about basic religious framework, or what she calls a Hindu concepts. “Even if they are not “respectful context,” changes the way she particularly religious, they do have a concept of , the way she tells stories through God, not necessarily knowing what that is, and emotions. This “respectful context” triggers being kind of up there, somewhere [pointing to types of movements that would only happen in the sky, laughing], and… someone you can’t the presence of the divine, the “miraculous.” touch, or talk to.”34 Her approach to teaching Thus, for Neena, a Bharatanatyam performance dance is therefore “as universal as possible,” is about the combination of the “spiritual

31 Ibid. 29 Neena Jayarajan (Bharatanatyam and Odissi dancer), 32 Chatterjea, “In Search of a Secular,” 111. in an interview with the author, October 2017. 33 Neena, interview. 30 Ibid. 34 Ibid. SYMPOSIA 24 giving students the possibility to pray “to the This enjoyment can be equated with gods, whoever that may be for [them]” during spirituality at times, and dance can even the initial gratitude sequence [namaskar] of the transform into a form of devotion. According to dance practice.35 Chakravorty, the performance of Kathak dance Spirituality and religion often come is intricately linked with the expression of back in the discourse around Bharatanatyam. devotion through the erotic sentiment But so do pleasure and well-being, two notions [shringara rasa] or devotional ecstasy. She that flirt with religiousness and spirituality. The explains that by “foregrounding the body in rigorous, repetitive physical practice of dance religious experience, the Indian aesthetic [riyaz], for instance, is most often equated with concept of rasa links spiritual experience with pleasure and well-being, elements reminiscent emotion and aesthetics in tasting passionate of rasa theory and the pleasure experienced love.”39 Dance thus becomes a “passionate through aesthetic delight [rasa]. As discussed experience of the sacred” lived through this by scholar and Kathak dancer Pallabi embodied aesthetic desire of shringara rasa, Chakravorty,36 riyaz or repetitive movements which allows “expressions of the deepest bring a deep enjoyment in the dancer. Julie emotions of mystical love, longing, and highlighted this aspect of her dance practice as separation”40 and in which rasa “unites the well: “I experience a deep, transformative joy erotic with the spiritual, the real time with the when performing Indian dance. A lot of transcendental, and the bhakta [devotee] with shivering, moments of chills. Sometimes, I can the divine”41. Hence, she argues that “the start weeping, just because I get caught by a expressive body of the Kathak dancer is deeply character. It happens during live performances, embedded in the semiotics of anticipation and but also often when I rehearse.”37 Even though longing that are integral to the devotional Julie noted that this is not exclusive to Indian landscape of India,” and that, as a result, “the dance (she is also a contemporary dance artist), ‘performing body’ is the canvas for shaping the she specified that “this joy is more present, aesthetic emotions of desire and longing that more powerful” for her when performing lead to ecstasy” in Kathak.42 She believes that Bharatanatyam dance.38 the dancing body lives and experiences the sacred through the embodiment of the male and the female in expressive dance [abhinaya], as well as through the mimesis of repetitive 35 Ibid. practice [riyaz] and the realisation of ecstasy in 36 Chakravorty, “Dance, Pleasure and Indian Women”; heightened moments of aesthetic expressions.43 Chakravorty, “The Exalted Body”; Chakravorty, “Moved to Dance.” 37 Julie, interview. Author’s translation. Original: “C’est une joie profonde que j’expérimente dans la danse indienne qui est très transformatrice. Beaucoup 39 Pallabi Chakravorty and Scott Kugle, eds., de frissons, des moments de frissons. Des fois, je peux Performing Ecstasy: The Poetics and Politics of me mettre à pleurer, parce que j’me fais pogner par tel Religion in India (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers & personnage. Ça va arriver en spectacle, ça arrive Distributors, 2009), 10. souvent aussi dans la pratique.” 40 Chakravorty, “Exalted Body,” 93. 38 Ibid. Author’s translation. Original: “Cette joie-là est 41 Ibid., 102–3. plus présente, est plus puissante pour moi dans la 42 Ibid. pratique du Bharatanatyam.” 43 Ibid., 94. 25 BLANCHARD / DANCING (NOT SO MUCH) BY THE BOOK

Julie and Chakravorty both exemplify dance academies become part of the Western the slight discrepancy between the classical pedagogical paradigm revolving around aspects of Indian dance, which are at the root of visual/scriptural knowledge. Yet, this form of its identity, and its embodied practice. When teaching is not the norm in India, as both Julie expresses her deep joy while dancing Western(ized) and Indian (embodied) Bharatanatyam, or when Chakravorty states that pedagogies still coexist.45 her dance practice is a form of devotion in Samyuktha is the only one of my which she feels closer than ever to God, both informants that showed me books and texts she argue that these forms of enjoyment, whether used during her training. Her experience at spiritual or not in nature, are embodied realities, Kalakshetra, of course, was structured around not textual ones. This type of pleasure is learned Rukmini Devi’s curriculum, who thought that and experienced through performative tradition, students should live on the campus and receive everyday techniques of the body, and lived a holistic education, one in which the practice religion. of dance is informed by theory and by other art forms, mainly music, but also crafts. This was Reflecting Theory in Discourse/Embodying Rukmini Devi’s way of preserving the Tradition in Practice traditional one-on-one form of instruction [guru-shishya parampara] in which students In contexts outside of dance academies, live with their teacher and take part in all references to classical texts and Indian aspects of their daily life. Samyuktha reflects philosophy by are rare. When there is a Rukmini Devi’s structured, nationalist, literal use of these sources, like the Abhinaya “authentic,” and spiritual discourse on, and Darpana for instance, they are learned orally understanding of, Bharatanatyam, referring to and physically, sometimes written down in the Natyashastra and the Abhinaya Darpana as notes, but rarely would a student read these her main theoretical sources for dance. She also texts directly. It is important to acknowledge relates the history of devadasis in the same way this because it means that the religious Rukmini Devi did decades ago. significance attributed to Indian classical dance The formalization of Indian classical forms does not generally come directly from the dance during the 20th century, as introduced by alleged source of classical dance, i.e. the Rukmini Devi, is a crucial factor in the current Natyashastra, but from the discourse that has Bharatanatyam dance training and its discourse, emerged from it, as a result of various historical because it turned pedagogy upside down: rather conditions such as certain Indian nationalist than building theory from practice, it is practice projects.44 However, in dance academies such that is now informed by theory. But such a as the world-renowned Kalakshetra Foundation drastic change in pedagogy is no easy task, founded by Rukmini Devi in Chennai, texts and whether introducing theory into practice in technique, as informed by Western pedagogy, are crucial to the student’s curriculum. By relying on text and theory to inform practice, 45 For a more detailed account of dance teaching styles in contemporary India, see Ananya Chatterjea, “Training in Indian Classical Dance: A Case Study,” 44 See note 12 Asian Theatre Journal 13, no.1 (1996): 68–91. SYMPOSIA 26

India or teaching movements without theory in pedagogy cannot be considered embodied the diaspora. In a diasporic context, using simply because it does not start with theory. strictly physical or embodied pedagogies, or Neena had to face such pedagogical even just approaching dance as a given spiritual obstacles in her learning trajectory. She exercise, can prove challenging, as mentioned explained that when she learned dance in by Samyuktha when she confessed that she had Toronto, she would spend a lot of time taking trouble teaching children in Canada since dance notes, studying poems and working on their is not a part of their lifestyle. Dance, in other translations with her instructor. As a result, her words, is treated as a hobby. training in Odissi in Orissa, India, was quite In contrast, Neena found a productive challenging. She humorously related how she balance between embodied and intellectual would fear her guru who would hit two of her forms of knowledge in her teaching. As a Indian male students with her thalam, her mediator between cultures, she had to navigate wooden rhythm stick, but would save her sets of knowledges and pedagogical Canadian students from such treatment: “You perspectives that are sometimes hard to all [Canadian students and other foreigners] reconcile. Indeed, the deep European and listen to my words. But these people [locals] North-American obsession with text, classicism only listen to my stick!” said her guru.47 “Less and authenticity, in which the sense of vision talk, more ‘do’!” is how Neena therefore dominates all other senses in the formation of defined the Indian dance pedagogy. The knowledge, can easily clash with the embodied practice of Indian dance in its original setting pedagogy of guru-shishya parampara in dance, revolves around doing, around actions, around in which students do not study theory before knowledge inscribed in the body, not around putting it into practice––as is the case in the textual or theoretical tradition. As such, the West––but instead do, learning through Indian form of dance pedagogy translated such movements that are later connected (or not) valorization of knowledge. Instead of sitting with theory. Yet, as clearly demonstrated by down and taking notes, or reading translated Murphy Halliburton, Indian ways of learning poems to adapt their abhinaya like students and knowing are certainly not restricted to the from Toronto did, local Indian students would body. There are, at least in the South Indian do, they would learn through doing. They did cultures of , subtle distinctions between not need a textual or theoretical understanding mind [manas], body [shariram], consciousness before jumping into their practice; they already [bodham] and other states such as the true embodied much of the theory at work. Canadian self/soul [].46 Consequently, considering students, on the other hand, needed to learn to Indian societies as “embodied” reflects a deep embody India through imagination. They misunderstanding of alternative knowledges and needed to understand what gestures meant, understandings of the self/body, in that a because they were not necessarily familiar with

47 Neena, interview. Neena is but one of many interviewees that related the “harshness” of studying 46 Murphy Halliburton, “Rethinking Anthropological with a guru that hits her/his students Studies of the Body: Manas and Bodham in Kerala,” with the thalam stick—female students are certainly American Anthropologist 104, no. 4 (2002): 1123–34. not exempted from such treatment. 27 BLANCHARD / DANCING (NOT SO MUCH) BY THE BOOK them from their everyday environment. As a highlights important contrasts between theory result, they relied more on imagination than on and practice, embodiment and imagination; her embodied knowledge, especially in the early experience in India as a NRI clearly stages of their training. The idea of religion and demonstrated that she needed to embody spirituality in Indian classical dance is no gestures using theory because her everyday exception to this rule. environment did not ”train” her in movements and expressions that were natural or self-evident Concluding Remarks to her fellow Indian classmates in Orissa. What we see today is a distinction Through a brief examination of three case between the practice of dance and its narrative, studies—Samyuktha, Julie and Neena—this between its process and its form or result. For paper aims at diversifying the academic performers, it appears that dance is not discourse around classical Indian dance and its religious, because its practice in today’s context relation to the ambiguous category of religion. is secular, outside of temple walls. What they Samyuktha, Julie and Neena all demonstrate consider religious are the narratives enacted on how the mainstream Bharatanatyam discourse the stage, or the traditional context from which based on post-independence nationalist efforts48 dance emerges—which is, in fact, more about is still relevant today. However, they also prove culture than religion. And when the actual that there are many ways of mobilizing such practice of dance is deemed religious or rather, discourse. For Samyuktha, the spirituality of spiritual, it is mainly because the physical dance is partly located in the linear movements exercise of dance is understood as a rigorous and technique of Bharatanatyam, while for practice, a sadhana or riyaz, that becomes Julie, the process of riyaz or sadhana, rigorous somewhat sacred in itself, in that it transforms practice, is at the basis of the experience of the everyday body into an aesthetic and other- what we could call “spirituality” in dance. For worldly body. The key element here is the Neena, dance is not spiritual, but the fact that process of dance, the making of it, and not the Bharatanatyam emerged from a religious end-result or the representation. The environment informs her practice insofar as the “spirituality” or “joy” of dance is precisely “respectful context” of religion defines the way located in this process. she embodies movements. All three women also have a different relationship with theory and It seems, then, that the ultimate practice based on their respective backgrounds. authority in dance pedagogy is not the text As persons born in Canada, Neena and Julie had itself, but the teacher’s traditional, embodied to learn to “embody India”49 through dance, knowledge—but most importantly, the process while Samyuktha had to engage in a deep of learning dance. As such, the continual claims reflection as to how she could adapt her about Bharatanatyam being “religious,” physical approach to dance pedagogy in a “authentic” or “classical” based on its textual Canadian setting. Neena’s case study also sources are not necessarily founded. What I want to highlight, though, is the importance of such elements and terms in today’s discourse 48 See note 12. around classical Indian dance, but also in 49 Julie, interview. practice. There is still great value given to the SYMPOSIA 28 dance’s classical and authentic aspects, and A new landscape of Indian classical turning away from this discourse would mean dance styles is now emerging thanks to changing the whole structure of classical Indian collaborations and curiosity. Inter-dance works dance or simply abandoning this style for a raise questions about technique, theory and different one. context that would not have been possible some Nonetheless, many artists are able to fifty years ago, and that need to be explored navigate the incompatibility between textual further. There lies the future of neo-classical classicism, authenticity, nationalist narratives Indian dance-drama. and historical tradition by replacing certain normative Indian values50 with allegedly more Bibliography modern ones while retaining the technical, physical tradition of Indian classical dance. 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