FUSE#5

The Problematic Danseuse
leaving to that other any right to intervene, to ‘act’ in her own interests”
(1985: 157). The opening verse from the Abhinaya Darpana comes to
mind. Expressing the lived feminine carries multi-pronged potential—
empowerment in women arising from the agency and authenticity of
expression, the gradual development of awareness and possible transformation
in society. Dance, with its emphasis and connection to the
corporeal, its negotiation with physical space and tools for non-verbal
communication can serve as a powerful and effective medium for lending
tangibility to the female dancer’s reality. Indeed, these expressions
offer a fresh perspective, “the point of view of the feminine subject”
(Lehtinen 2014: 85).
I examine issues surrounding the expression of the Bharatanatyam
dancer’s lived feminine through three approaches, namely: portrayal of
eroticism, critiquing of gender norms, and expression of her personal
lived experience. I discuss the creation and presentation of my artistic
work, reactions evoked within the socio-cultural context (including
audiences), my interactions and observations in the field as well as
challenges posed to such expression in the context of the globalized 2
dance form—Bharatanatyam.
1. Her Dance is TOO Erotic
After all, I was depicting Radha 3 and Krishna 4 in a post-coital moment.
I felt the strong need to include my own experience as a woman and
to allow for the expressions to be less stylized, to depict an everyday
reality. Instead of restricting my abhinaya to focus on the face
and hand gestures alone, I extended it to include the rest of my body.
Radha in this verse has been referred to as the Swadhinapatika nayika
[heroine], one who is in command of her lover. I therefore introduced
body positions and movements that I felt would convey this stance in a
sexual connotation. Since Radha was seeking to prolong the moment
and have Krishna indulge her in various ways, I interpreted the verse to
be the interim between two sexual climaxes and this was represented
through bodily abhinaya 5 (Seshadri 2011: 6; 2018: 118 – 9).
In the experimental Bharatanatyam duet Crossroads (2003) that was
primarily an exploration of gender through the recontextualization
of the conventional Bharatanatyam margam (repertoire), I chose to
perform as my solo piece the ashtapadi 6 Kuru Yadunandana from
Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda 7 . While earlier versions were performed in
the prescribed and acceptable manner, it was when preparing for
the 2006 staging in Chennai at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha 8 that I was
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