The practice of South Asian Dance Drama: old scripts, new actors

Description

The paper will deal with implications of cultural changes related to the interconnectivity of the regions of India through the nationalisation of certain arts. The dance-drama of Bharatanatyam derives from the temples and courts of Tamil Nadu, and has gone through an interesting transformation along with shifting economic, political and social relations. The paper will put into focus how the dance in its present form is practiced, experienced and presented in an urban North Indian upper-middle class setting, and how the present day dancers reflect on the history of the dance as well as their own position in society along categories of gender, religion and class.