RECAST(E)ING SOUTH/ASIAN DANCE AND PERFORMANCE

​​CHRISTENA LINDBORG SCHLUNDT LECTURE SERIES IN DANCE STUDIES

This year's Christena Schlundt Lecture will feature two speakers, Nrithya Pillai and Yashoda Thakore, who will share their unique perspectives on Indian dance.

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Nrithya Pillai

“Re-casteing Narratives of Bharatanatyam: History, Appropriation, and the Politics of Invisibilization”

Description

All Bharatanatyam that is performed today has one commonality: it is appropriative in nature. How does one deal with this issue? What happens when actions that claim to address the appropriative nature of the art end up enforcing Brahminic hegemony, and close off spaces for dissent from young women practitioners from hereditary backgrounds who do not want to be known as “devadasis”? Is there a lack of self-reflection and complacency among the predominantly Brahmin and Brahminic set of practitioners and some scholars of Bharatanatyam? How do I, as a hereditary dancer and a modern woman, voice myself through the noise, policing, and gatekeeping that constantly – and now across several generations – has kept our voices inaudible? Through critical historical engagement and a discussion of caste-based, nationalist economies and power-based networks today, this presentation addresses how the politics of invisibilization have, and continue to bear upon the discourse and performance practice of Bharatanatyam. 

Bio

Nrithya Pillai is a dancer, dance composer, singer, writer, speaker, and dance instructor from a lineage of hereditary dance and music artists in South India. Following the legacy of her maternal grandfather Swamimalai Rajarathnam Pillai, she consciously preserves and reanimates the rich repertoire and the teaching and choreographic practices of her celebrated ancestors, who include V. Meenakshisundaram Pillai, T.K Swaminatha Pillai and Vazhuvoor B. Ramiah Pillai. Carving out her own space as a performer with impeccable training and vast creativity, Nrithya represents a new kind of artistic and intellectual engagement with the troubled history of Bharatanatyam. She vigorously challenges the power relationships and ideologies that made the form unavailable to women of her community, and advocates fiercely for the restoration of credit for Bharatanatyam technique, repertoire, and philosophy to the hereditary community of practitioners.

This talk is part of the 2021-2022 UCR Department of Dance Colloquium. For more information about the series, please see here.

As we strive to constantly renew our commitments to social and racial justice as a department, we acknowledge and recognize our responsibility to the original and current caretakers of the land where UC Riverside is located: The Cahuilla, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano peoples (see full land acknowledgement). The life of our department and the upkeep of our facilities are maintained by the labor of so many people to whom we are grateful. Special thanks to Melanie Ramiro, Performing Arts Marketing Specialist, and Lily Chan Szeto, Department of Dance Event Specialist.