Dancing the Past, Choreographing the Future. The Case of Bharata Nā ṭ yam

Abstract

Is Indian classical dance a living art form or a museum piece? This disturbing question is provoked by the work of a group of Indian dancers who denounce the vision of their dance as an exotic and immutable art. Indeed, since its creation in the  years 1920-30, the classical dance form from South India became the symbol of an authentically Indian past and the emblem of an ancient cultural heritage. A pan-Indian model of classicism was imposed which was supposedly designed to save an endangered art. But under the «revival» of classical dance defended by official history lies a complex set of changes that led to the invention of a tradition. This paper shows how the claims of authenticity of Indian dance have led to an artistic stagnation in which the dancers cannot express their «indianness» in a global context without incurring the disapproval of Indian traditionalists or disappointing the exotic expectations of orientalists.