(NOT SO MUCH) by the BOOK: MAPPING a NEW DISCOURSE AROUND the PRACTICE of INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE MARIE-JOSÉE BLANCHARD CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY Bl [email protected]
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DANCING (NOT SO MUCH) BY THE BOOK: MAPPING A NEW DISCOURSE AROUND THE PRACTICE OF INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE 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 Bharatanatyam 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 Sanskrit 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 India and abroad. As Indian diaspora living in Canada, and their highlighted by Janet O’Shea, Indian classical respective roles in shaping the discourse about dance forms often provide “a means for religion 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 bharata performing art in the Canadian diaspora today? natyam in the hopes of their performing an How does the normative discourse about arangetram, 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 Kalpana 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 Rasa, 1 Janet O’Shea, At Home in the World: Bharata Nṛtta and Raga 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 (Odissi, Kathak, etc.) or outside of it the Indian landscape, the public stage cannot be (contemporary dance, ballet, 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 Devi and T. Balasaraswati 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 Indian classical dance, see Anandi systems, limiting religious practices to Salinas, “Building a Natya Shastra: 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 sadhana, 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