loved this (and didn't think to make the connection between techno and classical dance but makes sooooo much sense in hindsight - when i was travelling around europe, i met people who talked about how amazing but exclusionary the berlin rave scene was so i didn't even try to go to one when i was in berlin lol)
i wanted to share (piggybacking off of another commenter here) that i believe that indian classical arts are unique in their gatekeeping tendencies because while most classical art forms breed some level of elitism among fans or practitioners, in this case i believe that a lot of the exclusion is driven exclusively by caste.
speaking from my experience as a bharatanatyam student, and interacting with other students who learnt it as well, i have heard so many horror stories of caste-based discrimination in bharatanatyam. my friend who lives in NZ told me that he knows teachers there who straight up refuse to teach certain pieces to non-brahmin students. it's devastating to hear this because art is meant to be for everyone. bharatanatyam itself was known as sadhir aattam not too long ago, and was practised by mainly lower caste women. it was looked down upon by upper caste families for how overtly sexual it was and they forbade their daughters from learning it until rukmini arundale appropriated it and sanitised it to fit the "moral purity" sensibilities of UCs. imo, this feels very colonial.
in order to have a proper conversation about exclusion in the indian arts in good faith, we have to reckon with the ugly history of caste in art.
and i also feel like the people who are against "democratising" any art form because they feel that it would result in bastardisation of said art form is just a fascist in hiding. it's a way to hoard cultural capital for one elite section of society while keeping everyone else out. even discussing art using the terms "real" and "pure" is very anti-intellectual and fascistic. while respect for the form and tradition is still important, it should never come at the expense of popularising the art form and inviting more people to participate and bring their unique perspectives.
Thank you so much for sharing your friend’s experience.
(I wonder how many people have gone through similar things in the dance world — it makes me think I should run a survey about this sometime.)
I’m currently trying to figure out the best way to address caste-based discrimination. I’ll likely need to approach it as a collaborative piece, so it might take me a while to get there. In the meantime, I’ll continue to build credibility as a writer and researcher, because I want to do it the right way.
The phrase that really shifted my perspective was:
“While respect for the form and tradition is still important, it should never come at the expense of popularising the art form and inviting more people to participate and bring their unique perspectives.”
That truly opened my eyes.
It reminds me of the time I felt guilty for liking Usha Jey’s Hybrid-Bharatanatyam choreography. Looking back, I see that guilt came from the idea that I was enjoying something that wasn’t “pure” or the “correct” way of doing things.
i get what you mean regarding the guilt. i do think that, leaving aside the caste implications of how dance is taught, there's so much rigidity in the teaching method itself that students inadvertently become judgemental of any performance or interpretation that is unorthodox. i'm not a good dancer myself but i really turn into a mean girl when watching someone else dance sometimes, quick to criticise any "deficiencies".
and isn't it strange, how so much of the pedagogy surrounding dance that we know today is a fairly recent tradition? (just did a wikipedia rabbit hole deep dive on rukmini arundale, the devadasi system and whatnot) i can only speak for bharatanatyam maybe, but what we learn today can't really be considered "pure" if it's only a 100 years old when this dance form has existed for thousands of years.
anyways, i haven't heard of usha jey but thanks for mentioning her! will check out her videos now
Super interesting. In exploring questions like this, I find it helpful to go back and dig into the history of the dance form also - 'Bharatanatyam', which I have learnt, was taken/appropriated from the nattuvanars of the Isai Vellalar communities by upper-caste dancers. When the same upper-caste dancers try to gatekeep and 'maintain the purity' of the dance form (often by requiring dancers to maintain certain caste-based aesthetics of femininity in order to learn the dance - such as dressing modestly, wearing a bottu, eating only vegetarian food, and also throwing around caste-based microaggressions in class), it honestly reeks of hypocrisy.
But there has been a certain 'democratisation' of 'classical' arts today (both words in quotes because I don't think it is true democratisation and notions of 'classical' are often classist and casteist, unfortunately!). And that has resulted in the fitting in of a very vibrant, diverse, heterogenous and freeing art tradition into the narrow lenses of religion, bhakti, and hindutva-based religious nationalism. This, too, is a violation of everything that these arts stood for in pre-colonial times.
Coming back to your question - not sure what the answer is. Both sides have their share of violence, and some amount of 'gatekeeping' is necessary. But I would ask - gatekeeping by whom? And for what purpose? Who is benefiting from holding the art form in their bodies, and in what ways?
Nrithya Pillai, who is from the Isai Vellalar community, has articles on the internet and also talks & lectures on YouTube that are accessible. Yashoda Rao Thakore is a Kuchipudi dancer from the hereditary dancing community of Andhra Pradesh, she's an academic and a dance teacher and should have some talks uploaded online.
Davesh Soneji's academic book, 'Unfinished Gestures', on the history of dance and dancers in South India is an important academic book too - it has a lot of anecdotes and stories in hereditary dancers' voices, it is extremely helpful to understand dance & dancers' encounters with the reform movement (and the people/forces therein) in the 19th-20th centuries.
Good luck with your work!! I'm also figuring my way through some of the difficult questions that these arts bring up (or at least, trying to), so really looking forward to reading more from you :)
This is exactly what I was looking for! I've noted down all these resources
(P.S It would be a dream to collaborate or interview Nrithya Pillai!)
I'm going to let this one sit with you a bit longer. Thankfully, next month’s edition will switch things up—with somewhat less questioning and more lighthearted, research-driven self-experimentation!
Thank you for the support and the reading materials!
Beautifully penned the doubts of a dancer who has passion for the art. Who cares for the art more not to die , than putting the make up & lime light thirst. So much informations in just one article. This is a lot of research & interest in the art. Bravo.
loved this (and didn't think to make the connection between techno and classical dance but makes sooooo much sense in hindsight - when i was travelling around europe, i met people who talked about how amazing but exclusionary the berlin rave scene was so i didn't even try to go to one when i was in berlin lol)
i wanted to share (piggybacking off of another commenter here) that i believe that indian classical arts are unique in their gatekeeping tendencies because while most classical art forms breed some level of elitism among fans or practitioners, in this case i believe that a lot of the exclusion is driven exclusively by caste.
speaking from my experience as a bharatanatyam student, and interacting with other students who learnt it as well, i have heard so many horror stories of caste-based discrimination in bharatanatyam. my friend who lives in NZ told me that he knows teachers there who straight up refuse to teach certain pieces to non-brahmin students. it's devastating to hear this because art is meant to be for everyone. bharatanatyam itself was known as sadhir aattam not too long ago, and was practised by mainly lower caste women. it was looked down upon by upper caste families for how overtly sexual it was and they forbade their daughters from learning it until rukmini arundale appropriated it and sanitised it to fit the "moral purity" sensibilities of UCs. imo, this feels very colonial.
in order to have a proper conversation about exclusion in the indian arts in good faith, we have to reckon with the ugly history of caste in art.
and i also feel like the people who are against "democratising" any art form because they feel that it would result in bastardisation of said art form is just a fascist in hiding. it's a way to hoard cultural capital for one elite section of society while keeping everyone else out. even discussing art using the terms "real" and "pure" is very anti-intellectual and fascistic. while respect for the form and tradition is still important, it should never come at the expense of popularising the art form and inviting more people to participate and bring their unique perspectives.
Thank you so much for sharing your friend’s experience.
(I wonder how many people have gone through similar things in the dance world — it makes me think I should run a survey about this sometime.)
I’m currently trying to figure out the best way to address caste-based discrimination. I’ll likely need to approach it as a collaborative piece, so it might take me a while to get there. In the meantime, I’ll continue to build credibility as a writer and researcher, because I want to do it the right way.
The phrase that really shifted my perspective was:
“While respect for the form and tradition is still important, it should never come at the expense of popularising the art form and inviting more people to participate and bring their unique perspectives.”
That truly opened my eyes.
It reminds me of the time I felt guilty for liking Usha Jey’s Hybrid-Bharatanatyam choreography. Looking back, I see that guilt came from the idea that I was enjoying something that wasn’t “pure” or the “correct” way of doing things.
i get what you mean regarding the guilt. i do think that, leaving aside the caste implications of how dance is taught, there's so much rigidity in the teaching method itself that students inadvertently become judgemental of any performance or interpretation that is unorthodox. i'm not a good dancer myself but i really turn into a mean girl when watching someone else dance sometimes, quick to criticise any "deficiencies".
and isn't it strange, how so much of the pedagogy surrounding dance that we know today is a fairly recent tradition? (just did a wikipedia rabbit hole deep dive on rukmini arundale, the devadasi system and whatnot) i can only speak for bharatanatyam maybe, but what we learn today can't really be considered "pure" if it's only a 100 years old when this dance form has existed for thousands of years.
anyways, i haven't heard of usha jey but thanks for mentioning her! will check out her videos now
Super interesting. In exploring questions like this, I find it helpful to go back and dig into the history of the dance form also - 'Bharatanatyam', which I have learnt, was taken/appropriated from the nattuvanars of the Isai Vellalar communities by upper-caste dancers. When the same upper-caste dancers try to gatekeep and 'maintain the purity' of the dance form (often by requiring dancers to maintain certain caste-based aesthetics of femininity in order to learn the dance - such as dressing modestly, wearing a bottu, eating only vegetarian food, and also throwing around caste-based microaggressions in class), it honestly reeks of hypocrisy.
But there has been a certain 'democratisation' of 'classical' arts today (both words in quotes because I don't think it is true democratisation and notions of 'classical' are often classist and casteist, unfortunately!). And that has resulted in the fitting in of a very vibrant, diverse, heterogenous and freeing art tradition into the narrow lenses of religion, bhakti, and hindutva-based religious nationalism. This, too, is a violation of everything that these arts stood for in pre-colonial times.
Coming back to your question - not sure what the answer is. Both sides have their share of violence, and some amount of 'gatekeeping' is necessary. But I would ask - gatekeeping by whom? And for what purpose? Who is benefiting from holding the art form in their bodies, and in what ways?
Thank you so much for taking time to leave a comment.
These are some thought provoking questions that makes me think of writing a well researched part 2 to this in the future!
In the mean time, I’ll be building my credibility as writer.
Once again, thank you for taking time to reflect ❤️
If you know anyone from the Isai Vellalar community, please let me know.
Someday I’d like to do a well researched collaboration piece that does address the history of the dance form!
Nrithya Pillai, who is from the Isai Vellalar community, has articles on the internet and also talks & lectures on YouTube that are accessible. Yashoda Rao Thakore is a Kuchipudi dancer from the hereditary dancing community of Andhra Pradesh, she's an academic and a dance teacher and should have some talks uploaded online.
Davesh Soneji's academic book, 'Unfinished Gestures', on the history of dance and dancers in South India is an important academic book too - it has a lot of anecdotes and stories in hereditary dancers' voices, it is extremely helpful to understand dance & dancers' encounters with the reform movement (and the people/forces therein) in the 19th-20th centuries.
Good luck with your work!! I'm also figuring my way through some of the difficult questions that these arts bring up (or at least, trying to), so really looking forward to reading more from you :)
This is exactly what I was looking for! I've noted down all these resources
(P.S It would be a dream to collaborate or interview Nrithya Pillai!)
I'm going to let this one sit with you a bit longer. Thankfully, next month’s edition will switch things up—with somewhat less questioning and more lighthearted, research-driven self-experimentation!
Thank you for the support and the reading materials!
Beautifully penned the doubts of a dancer who has passion for the art. Who cares for the art more not to die , than putting the make up & lime light thirst. So much informations in just one article. This is a lot of research & interest in the art. Bravo.
I think aadu paambe is almost danced by every Bharathanatyam dancer. Has no
Patent for the song & choreo