BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:iCalendar-Ruby BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Arts,Dance,Lectures & Presentations,Academic DESCRIPTION:Anusha Kedhar\, Anthea Kraut\, and Jose Luis Reynoso (Bello): N ew Work in Dance Research\n\n \n\nAnusha Kedhar \n\n“What's Love Got to Do With It? Intercaste Intimacies and the Making of the Modern Guru”\n\nThis t alk explores an important but overlooked post-Independence moment when male nattuvanars (music conductors) started teaching a critical mass of brahmin girls and young women up until the transition in the 1990s when those same women started their own dance schools\, becoming gurus in their own right and marking the moment when bharatanatyam established itself as a brahmin-d ominated art form. The transmission of embodied knowledge from lower caste gurus to elite dominant caste girls in the mid 20th century was a pivotal p eriod--and indeed the starting point\, I argue--in the making of the modern bharatanatyam guru\, but one that has not been adequately analyzed with mo st research stopping at 1947 (Indian Independence) or starting in the late 20th century. This talk explores the inter-caste\, interclass\, intergender \, and intergenerational dynamics of guru-shishya relationships between mal e nattuvanars and brahmin women during these important transitional decades . I’m especially interested in the role of intimacy and the way affect\, pa rticularly feelings of familial love and gratitude as well as hurt and frus tration\, mask questions of caste power in guru-shishya relationships.\n\n \n\nAnthea Kraut \n\n“Hollywood Dance-ins and the Reproduction of Bodies”\n \nThis presentation will give an overview of Kraut’s recently published boo k\, Hollywood Dance-ins and the Reproduction of Bodies (Oxford University P ress\, 2025)\, which offers a historical examination of the figure of the d ance-in\, a dancer who performs in place of a star prior to filming. The bo ok argues that the dance-in helps expose a “corporeal ecosystem” that opera ted in mid-century Hollywood to prop up the seeming coherence and self-refe rentiality of white stars’ dancing bodies. In addition to rehearsing the bo ok’s argument\, the talk will address some of the intellectual concerns tha t drive the book\, including the relationship between history and theory\, Black feminist critiques of the body and dance studies’ investment in the b ody\, and the values and limitations of bodily evidence. \n\n \n\nJose Luis Reynoso (Bello)\n\n“Researching Mythologies & Other Contemporary Narrative s of Self and World Making”\n\nThe title of this presentation serves as a f rame for some reflections on narratives people formulate to describe to the mselves and others who (they think) they are as people\, dancers\, artists\ , and dance scholars (among other identifications). These ideas\, still in early development\, are part of the process of identifying shared values\, language(s)\, repertoires of concepts\, and recurrent/resonant approaches t o dance/performance making that help people recognize each other (explicitl y and implicitly) as members of what I’m tentatively calling imagined commu nities of artistic practice. The long-term project is to increase understan ding on the role of agency and the contradictions involved in practices and discourses contemporary artists/dancers use to construct their identities and the worlds they want to inhabit as individuals and collectives. \n\n \n \nParticipants:\n\n \n\nAnusha Kedhar is an Associate Professor of Critica l Dance Studies at UC Riverside. She is the author of Flexible Bodies: Brit ish South Asian Dancer in an Age of Neoliberalism and a Co-Investigator on the South Asian Dance Equity project funded by the Arts and Humanities Rese arch Council in the United Kingdom. Her new project focuses on the under-th eorized figure of the guru (teacher) in bharatanatyam and examines how danc e functions as a pedagogy of caste.\n\n \n\nAnthea Kraut is Professor in th e Department of Dance at UC Riverside\, where she teaches courses in critic al dance studies. Her research focuses on the racial and gender politics of U.S. dance. She is the author of Choreographing the Folk: The Dance Stagin gs of Zora Neale Hurston (University of Minnesota Press\, 2008)\, Choreogra phing Copyright: Race\, Gender\, and Intellectual Property Rights in Americ an Dance (Oxford University Press\, 2015)\, and Hollywood Dance-ins and the Reproduction of Bodies (Oxford University Press\, 2025) and the past recip ient of an ACLS fellowship\, an NEH fellowship\, and a Guggenheim Fellowshi p.\n\n \n\nJose Luis Reynoso (Bello) is Associate Professor of Critical Dan ce Studies at UC Riverside. He was the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Dance Studies in/and the Humanities at Northwestern University. He completed his Ph.D. in Culture and Performance (specialization in Dance Studies) and M.F. A. in choreography at UCLA\, and a M.A. in Psychology at California State U niversity Los Angeles. His research examines power dynamics and ideological aspects of artistic practices\, identifications\, and the politics of perf orming difference. His book\, Dancing Mestizo Modernisms: Choreographing Po stcolonial and Postrevolutionary Mexico (Oxford University Press\, 2023)\, won the Dance Studies Association 2024 Oscar G. Brockett Book Prize for Dan ce Research.\n\n \n\nPart of “Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh\, Bodies \, and Matter in Motion”\n\nCurrent Topics in Dance Research Colloquium Ser ies: January 08 - March 12\, 2026\n\n– María Regina Firmino-Castillo\, Cura tor & Coordinator \n\n \n\nTransversal Re/Configurations: Flesh\, Bodies\, and Matter in Motion was made possible through generous sponsorships from t he California Center for Native Nations\; the Rupert Costo Endowment in Ame rican Indian Affairs\, University of California\, Riverside\; the CHASS Dea n's Office and the Center for Ideas and Society\; and the Departments of Mu sic\, Ethnic Studies\, Gender & Sexuality Studies\, and Media & Cultural St udies.\n\n \n\nMany thanks to: taisha paggett (Department of Dance\, Chairp erson)\, Anthea Kraut (Department of Dance\, Vice-Chair)\, Courtney Brubake r (Events Specialist)\, and Pete Pace (Technical Director) for their genero us support of the Colloquium\, and to Jonathan Ritter (Department of Music\ , Chairperson) and María del Rosario Acosta López (Professor\, Hispanic Stu dies Department) for their vision and collaboration.\n\n \n\nFor Accessibil ity and Accommodations\, contact mariafc@ucr.edu \n\n \n\nPhoto Credits: Ma rie Bryant and Vera Ellen in Ebony Magazine. Photo by Larry Barbier. Publis hed by permission of the Barbier Estate in Anthea Kraut's Hollywood Dance-i ns and the Reproduction of Bodies (Oxford University Press\, 2025).\n\n \n\ nDownload the poster here [LINK COMING SOON]\n\n \n\nParking Information\n\ nStep 1: Click Here\n\nStep 2: Enter your license plate in the “License Pla te Number”\n\nStep 3: If the plate is non-California\, select the appropria te state for the plate.\n\nStep 4: Press ‘Park DTEND:20260116T005000Z DTSTAMP:20260317T092841Z DTSTART:20260115T220000Z LOCATION:CHASS Interdisciplinary South\, 1109 SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Anusha Kedhar\, Anthea Kraut\, and Jose Luis Reynoso (Bello): New W ork in Dance Research UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_51507309790446 URL:https://events.ucr.edu/event/new-work-in-dance-research-anusha-kedhar-a nthea-kraut-and-jose-luis-reynoso-bello END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR