Symposium on South Asian Dance

SYMPOSIUM ON SOUTH ASIAN DANCE one-day international Fifteen papers were pre She outlined the programme's words:"I discovered a whole A symposium titled 'Dance sented at the symposium. commitment to the integrated world of movement from in South Asia: New App These papers and the array approach to the discipline of within, as well as in the space roaches, Politics, and Aesthe of dance activities that dance that includes history, outside." She set the tone tics', was held at Swarthmore complimented them reflected theory, and practice. In this for the rest of the day by College, near Philadelphia, the proliferation and range context she pointed out encouraging participants in in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on of scholarship, choreography, Kumudini Lakhia's appro each field to push the boundary 2 March. The symposium- and performance in the field priateness to be the keynote and strive for originality of was followed hy a dance of South Asian dance. Needless speaker for the occasion. thought and movement. presentation titled Dust, an to say, although titled Dance international collaboration in South Asia, the dance-forms Kumudini Lakhia, coming Throughout the day, which between Dance Alloy of discussed were predominantly from a practice-based orien was packed with papers, dance Pittsburgh and Arangham Indian in origin. tation, spoke about her own videos, and a documentary Dance Theatre of Chennai, personal journey as a Kathak film, the presenters spoke India. The event was an unprece dancer and choreographer. about their own exploration dented opportunity for dia She described the difficulties of space not only choreo- Kumudini Lakhia, the logue and exchange between she faced as a dancer and graphically, or metaphorically, internationally acclaimed individuals from Swarthmore choreographer within the but also within the post choreographer, teacher and College, the Philadelphia classical world'of Kathak that colonial context of politics dancer of Kathak, delivered community, and scholars and was bounded by the tradition of location as it shapes the the keynote address. She also practitioners from all around of guru-sishya parampara. By dancer, her dance, her patron conducted a Kathak workshop the world. using video clips of her and her audience. the following day. exquisite and abstract choreo The Symposium graphies, she explained how Alessandra Lopez Y Royo The symposium drew she re-imagined the stage, from Roehampton University scholars and practitioners The morning began with an once only occupied by solo of Surrey, England, analysed from Europe, North America eloquent introduction by Prof. performers, to be filled with how museums in Britain are and India. The topics ranged Sharon Friedler, director of dancers, patterns of colours, changing their representations from national identity and dance at Swarthmore College. and music. In her own of South Asian dance-forms. tradition, aesthetics and A scene from 'Dust' She explained that these forms reception, to gender violence are no longer merely 'exhibits' and subaltern history. The and 'exotica' of the past overarching theme was the Orientalist mindset. Through re-contextualisation of past the participation of the South and present discourses on Asian diaspora as performers classical Indian dance within and choreographers, the mean the socio-political and ing of hegemonic cultural aesthetic context of the heritage has been questioned, 'modern' and the 'global'. The revealing plurality and diversity of approaches used contradiction. for addressing this changing dynamic spanned academic Chitra Sundaram, a practi disciplines such as history, tioner of Bharatanatyam and anthropology, dance studies director of Suchitdance in and performance studies, and London, illustrated through her included practitioners of choreographic work Moham: A classical Indian dance forms Magnificent Obsession, how such as Kathak, Bharata- she went back to traditional natyam, and Odissi. The technique to radically depart inter-cultural collaboration from the more popular between choreographers Mark convention of Bharatanatyam, Taylor of Dance Alloy, and thus pushing for a new Anita Ratnam of Arangham aesthetic within the structure Trust of Chennai highlighted of the form. She dwelt on the ongoing experimenta the ubiquitous nature of tions with movement voca Bharatanatyam in England, bularies and choreographic which she explained was forms that mark the new not one but many things. frontiers of South Asian Her choreographic work dance. reflected Alessandra's point 33 AUGUST 2002 that Bharatanatyam in and showed video clips of U.S.A., explored the subaltern a video of her choreographic Britain is a living, vibrant her works that she claimed text of the Mahari tradition work titled Revealed by Fire. and contemporary art-form went beyond narrow defini which was traditionally She explained that this was with multiple interpretations. tions of ethnicity and practiced by devadasi dancers. a multi-disciplinary colla authenticity. She argued, and showed boration using photography, Priya Srinivasan, from the through gestures/voice video. Western and Eastern Northwestern University in Andre Grau, from Roeham- modulations (being a dancer music, dramaturgy and play Illinois, U.S.A., analysed the pton University of Surrey, herself), how the female voice writing. Her choreography history of Bharatanatyam in England, drew on anthropolo is different in the Odissi about a search for identity from the context of its international gical and sociological theories vocabulary than the male or a personal cathartic experience circulation during the period to talk about the epistemo the Gotipua narrative, which illustrated Janet O'Shea's of Indian nationalism and the logical conundrums that is dominant now. point about the weaving of birth of Modern dance in plague post-Modern and post different narratives within America. In her discussion colonial theories. In a critique The third session was the choreography, rather than of the history of the form {in of Edward Said and others, she more eclectic in theme and letting the translation occur the construction of Modern argued that such theories of content than the first two. externally. American dance), she argued totalising Western hegemony The importance of the that, while white female reduce post-colonial subjects relationship between the Divya Kumar, director of dancers like Ruth St. Denis, to ahistorical beings devoid performance and the audience WordSoundAction, argued who appropriated Indian of agency. How useful is it, was explored in two papers but that the structural changes forms, were marked as modern she asked, for South Asian from different perspectives. that have occurred within subjects, their South Asian subjects/dancers/scholars, Uttara Asha Coorlawala, from Bharatanatyam during its counterparts, such as coming from upper echelons Long Island University in New reconstruction from Sadir Bharatanatyam dancers, were of society, to claim a victim York, examined and illustrated were heavily influenced by marked as carriers of tradition. status? through video clips how the the technique of film She explained that this label Rasa theory of ancient India editing. of tradition ideologically The second session began resonates with post-Modern The last paper was presented prevented South Asian dancers with the screening of a aesthetics of performance and by Pallabi Chakravorty of in the United States from film by Ashish Avikunthat continues to have relevance. sharing the same modernity. of Stanford University in Through a careful analysis of Swarthmore College. By California, titled 'Dancing a video clip of a Kathakali turning an anthropological lens Roxanne Kamayani Gupta, Othello/Brihannala ki Khel- performance, she showed how towards the larger collective of women Kathak dancers and from Albright College, in kali'. Based on Shakespearean this critical relationship is Pennsylvania, in a reversal of theatricality and Kathakali established. Janet O'Shea, practitioners in India, she such claims, argued that the dance tradition, this subtle, from the University of Surrey, explained how the knowledge of Kathak, despite its pro subject position for the white experimental film used theatre approached audience reception blematic patriarchal, nation American or European dancer and performance to articulate by analysing contemporary alist narrative, empowers practising Indian forms is the post-colonial irony of Indian dance performances in often viewed as illegitimate, contemporary India. The film London and Toronto as a ordinary women in Calcutta, and its surrounding small unauthentic and orientalist. suggested that Kathakali scholar of Bharatanatyam. She She argued that there is not aesthetics is incongruous for argued that contemporary towns. one but many orientalisms, contemporary urban audiences choreographers and performers The discussants for the and from her own subject in India. like Lata Pada, among others, symposium were Uttara Asha position as a white American who are interpreting the Coorlawala and Andre . Grau. Bharatanatyam dancer, the This point was foregrounded dance-form for a Western or In their summaries of the 'orientalism' she embodies is in a paper and video presen uninitiated audience, do not papers they highlighted the a radically liberating and tation of Ananya Chatterjea use English language trans importance of location of universal discourse. She argued from the University of lations of movement vocabu the producer of knowledge, that

Load more