FUSE#5

FUSE #5
daughters in the dance classes. For many of us, there was no choice in
the matter. By the age of 6, we began our journeys as carriers of this
culture. The dance form has suitably satisfied the “diasporic demand
for cultural symbols” (O’Shea 2007: 55) and continues to do so even
today. Anthropologist Sitara Thobani highlights: “It is in the transnational
context that essentialized constructions of India are further
cemented, leading to the strengthening of ideas regarding coherence,
uniformity and impermeability of Indian culture” (2017: 105). In more
recent years, with neo-liberalism and the rising presence of the transnational
elites in Singapore, who come here with a much stronger
connection to India, India’s presence is felt more strongly. With the
shifting political landscape, there appears to be a growing partnership
between India and the diaspora in heightening the projection of
Indianness and Hinduness globally.
Conclusion
Despite its advent as an ‘invented tradition’ 24 , Bharatanatyam appears
now to be locked into a continuing nationalist project. I agree
with choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh who says, “It is one thing
to say that it has roots that go back two thousand years and quite
another to say it hasn’t changed over that period of time” (1993: 7).
Scholar Kapila Vatsyayan acknowledges that Bharatanatyam deals
with modernity as well as with “fragments of antiquity” (1992: 8).
Understanding Bharatanatyam as an invented tradition should offer
hope of its potential for reinvention. However my observations and
experiences in the field, as I have discussed, foreground hegemonic
structures in Bharatanatyam that restrict its scope to nationalist,
colonialist and various other agendas specific to each space in which
it exists.
I introduce the notion of the Problematic Danseuse, who rejects
the prescriptive framework of Bharatanatyam that is governed by
rules of purity and appropriateness, choosing instead to explore autonomy
and authenticity through the portrayal of her lived feminine. I
suggest that the danseuse who contradicts the status quo, especially
with regard to the portrayal of eroticism, is treated with contempt
and tends to be frozen out. However I also highlight that this act
of erasing the Problematic Danseuse who does not fit conveniently
into the mainstream agenda is after all, embedded in the history and
emergence of the transfigured Bharatanatyam. I propose that creators
of alternative works in Bharatanatyam acknowledge that they
occupy a different space, thus presenting their work in settings that
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