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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Yashoda Thakore

“Performing Her-Stories of the Kalavantalu”

Description

The Kalavantulu are the 'hereditary' women singer-dancers from the Telugu-speaking areas of United Andhra Pradesh. Popularly known as 'Devadasis', the legacy of these women and their families remains misunderstood and misrepresented in the aftermath of the legislation that criminalized their livelihood.  I analyze and perform the stories of three women from different periods from the Kalavantulu families in relation to myself in a dialogic encounter. My performative talk will reflect how these sometimes conflicting voices respond to the 1947Act from an embodied perspective. I use Dwight Conquergood’s “dialogic ethnography” and Priya Srinivasan’s notion of “embodied archives” to enable a complex response to the law and its implications for artists in the present.

Bio

Yashoda Thakore descends from a long line of Kalavantalu dancers (hereditary women singer / dancer families). She is a renowned performer of Kuchipudi and Devadasi Nrityam. She has a PhD for her research on the Interrelationship Between Yoga and Indian Classical Dances and  authored “Kaivalya-Joy in Yoga and Dance” (2014), co-translated and critically edited “Nritta Ratnavali”, a 13thC text. She was an artist in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania (2019), and performed at the Wesleyan University (2019). Yashoda is a Chair for Kuchipudi Department at The University of Silicon Andhra, California. She was conferred the Bangalore Nagaratnamma award (2017) by the Viswanadha Organisation, Guntur and the Ugadi Puraskaram by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Yashoda works relentlessly to recover the voices and dances of the Kalavantalu women and to bring the next generation of artists from her community back to singing and dancing, Her main goal is to increase awareness and pride in these art forms. 

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.