Rethinking Global Indian Dance Through Local Eyes PDF

Rethinking Global Indian Dance through Local Eyes: The Contemporary Bharatanatyam Scene in Chennai Author(s): Shanti Pillai Source: Dance Research Journal , Winter, 2002, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Winter, 2002), pp. 14-29 Published by: Congress on Research in Dance Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/14...

Rethinking Global Indian Dance through Local Eyes: The Contemporary Bharatanatyam Scene in Chennai Author(s): Shanti Pillai Source: Dance Research Journal , Winter, 2002, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Winter, 2002), pp. 14-29 Published by: Congress on Research in Dance Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1478457 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Congress on Research in Dance is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Dance Research Journal This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Rethinking Global Indian Dance through Local Eyes: The Contemporary Bharatanatyam Scene in Chennai Shanti Pillai Discussions about globalization tend to fall somewhere between two poles. One invokes the paranoia of what Appadurai (1996) refers to as a McDonaldization of the world, in which local practices, identities, and economies give way to the homogenizing mandates of capitalism. The other rejoices over the emergence of so-called hybrid cultural forms, interpreted as signs of the resilience of non-Western societies, as harbingers of the dawn of some new age of mul- ticultural understanding, or as proof of the political power of consumers (Garcia Canclini 1995). Both views often underestimate the complexity of the relationship between the local and the global, and lose from view the fact that this relationship can be understood only in terms of historical conditions operating in specific contexts.1 While capitalism plunders the world, littering its path with Tommy Hilfiger, Pizza Hut, and the ever-popular sitcom Friends, there are many examples of the ways in which local populations do not passively consume what is thrown at them, but actively reinterpret and selectively combine elements of mass- mediated culture within preexisting frameworks and markets (Diawara 1998; Feld 1988; Martinez 1999). Moreover, the indigenization of global culture opens up the possibility of alternative experiences of modernity, which do not fall under the rubric of American culture but instead refer to other geocultural identities (Ching 2000). Dance studies have tended to emphasize the more celebratory pole, looking to histories of cultural borrowing and dance's transmigratory moves as proof of the resilience of embodied culture. Unfortunately, such narratives can sometimes normalize globalization in ways that too easily allow its contradictions and disparities to escape from view. Of proponents of hybridity within studies on world music, Steven Feld writes that "celebratory narratives stress the costs to 'tradition' as rather surface ones, ones that will, in the larger sweep of things, be overcome by creativity, invention, and resilience" (Feld 2000, 152). Taking the case study of the Indian classical dance, bharatanatyam, I hope to demonstrate that the globalization of local traditions does not necessarily translate into a newly invigorated life for those practices. Moreover, it does not imply an atmosphere of equality and mutual understanding between traditional prac- titioners and those who make use of their teachings in other places. Bharatanatyam, native to South India and in particular the state of Tamil Nadu, is prac- ticed today all over the world. Rather than examine the ways in which this dance is traveling abroad, however, I want to offer my observations about what is happening to its production2 and performance at home in Chennai (formerly known as Madras), the capital of Tamil Nadu. The dance form has its roots in the dasi attam performed by a special class of women attached Shanti Pillai is a Ph.D. candidate in Performance Studies at New York University. Her research interests include the globalization of Indian performance traditions and contempo- rary Western perceptions about and practice of Indian spirituality and Hinduism. She began her training in bharatanatyam under Kamala Cesar in New York and has since gone on to study under Nandini Ramani in Chennai and Priyamvada Sankar in Montreal. 14 Dance Research Journal 34/2 (Winter 2002) This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms to temples and royal courts until the "anti-nautch campaign" of the 1890s managed to all but submerge such practices.3 In the first half of the twentieth century, a series of historical cir- cumstances, including nationalism, a brahminization of the performing arts, and a dialogue between Western and Indian artists, converged to bring bharatanatyam to the proscenium stage where its performance was now acceptable for upper-caste women. The dance is thus an inter- esting case study to consider, as its history has involved global forces for quite some time. The fact that the concept of "globalization" is often used to cloak a process that generates inequalities derived from differential access to markets and international cultural brokers was on my mind one day in 2001 when I sat on the floor with a friend in her house in Chennai. She was complaining about having to go out that evening and watch what she was sure would be yet another lousy performance by a nonresident Indian (NRI). "These rich girls like this," she said acrimoniously. "They come here and dance and even if they fall on the stage every- one will applaud them." I smiled and remembered the annual Natya Kala dance scholarship conference I had attended only weeks earlier in Chennai. A panel of educators and dancers from Britain had spoken with great enthusiasm about how the sons and daughters of South Asian immigrants were taking to "traditional dances" and the energy they were bringing to creating new ones. The irony in juxtaposing these two viewpoints reveals some of the naive assumptions that those who might be quick to celebrate globalization and hybridity make. First of all, cultural forms are not simply free-floating objects that travel from point A to point B. As argued by James Clifford, one has to consider that "practices of displacement might emerge as constitu- tive of cultural meanings rather than as their simple transfer or extension" (Clifford 1997, 3). At the same time, just as cultural forms travel and are translated and transformed, they then travel back to their sites of origin, where they have consequences for the ways in which local populations practice and consume them. Often unknown to foreign academics and artists is that not all of the new developments are greeted with enthusiasm by local producers and audi- ences. Secondly, those who practice bharatanatyam outside India, in addition to those of India who are interested in innovating based on classical forms, pursue their wor erence to something they refer to as "tradition." For the former, this often means dance as a "carrier of culture" and seeing bharatanatyam as somehow timeless and able for accessing an essential "Indianness." For the innovators, calling on trad means claiming that bharatanatyam's static formal and thematic qualities are no vant to contemporary life, and therefore innovation is needed either to keep the da to allow people to express their present-day experiences. In truth, both points of v something that is only a phantom. Although commonly conceptualized as an imm untainted connection from the past, tradition is actually always thoroughly contem Raymond Williams writes: From a whole possible area of past and present, in a particular culture, certa meanings and practices are selected for emphasis and certain other meanin and practices are neglected or excluded. Yet, within a particular hegemony and as one of its decisive processes, this selection is presented and usually successfully passed off as "the tradition," "the significant past." What has then to be said about any tradition is that it is in this sense an aspect of con 34/2 (Winter 2002) Dance Research Journal 15 This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  temporary social and cultural organization, in the interest of the dominance of a specific class. (Williams 1977, 115-116) Thus, any tradition is the culmination of a selective process that aims to establish a historical and cultural continuity in response to and ratifying the present order of things. India is changing rapidly and so are all of its classical forms. It is not unusual to hear local performers and producers voice skepticism about the forms bharatanatyam will take in the future. While only some feel strongly that the dance is at risk of dying out, most would agree that its practice and performance will not continue as in the past. For that matter, what one sees today on the stage as bharatanatyam is already very different from what one saw only fifteen years ago. In what follows I will briefly outline some of those changes as they manifest in Chennai and what some of those involved in the performance of bharatanatyam have to say about those changes. It would be simplistic and even xenophobic to assign blame to global trends, as if what is taking place in India can be held as the sole responsibility of culprit NRIs and foreign influences. Such an argument would find itself in agreement with the misguided efforts on the part of many right-wing organizations in India and abroad to cleanse Indian cul- ture of "outside" influences and police both artistic and intellectual production.4 In truth, India is changing from pressures both within and from without. It is nt my intention to promote a nostalgic vision of bharatanatyam, as it has always been a nonstatic cultural form that recre- ated itself regularly in response to historical conditions. Moreover, some participants feel that the dance scene today is in some ways far more alive and exciting than in the past. I hope to demonstrate only the ways in which some contemporary changes in its production, practice, and performance in Chennai stand at odds with the simultaneous proliferation of the dance abroad. Production Shifts in how bharatanatyam gets produced in Chennai are concurrent with the dramatic changes taking place as the Indian economy continues to privatize and interact with glob market forces. Generally speaking, money is increasingly the judge of artistic mer Opportunities to perform can be less dependent on skill and more on a dancer's economic resources and social connections. Chennai, which has historically been home to various performance organizations and halls (sabhas), has witnessed a proliferation of cultural institutions and venues in recent years. The chance to perform on these stages ostensibly entails submitting a resume and videotape and competing with other dancers. As many of those involved in the performing arts readily admit however, it is as at least as often about getting introduced to performance organizers via a well-known personality or business leader. For example, a successful industrialist and long- time supporter of the arts admitted that he frequently receives calls from friends soliciting per- formance opportunities for their daughters at any one of the venues where he has solid con- tacts. Such a situation makes it difficult for anyone who does not hail from an elite or mon- eyed family. The same goes for those seeking chances to perform at one of the festivals held year-round in cities throughout India. Such festivals, which are almost always free for the public, are an expensive business and require ample fundraising. Travel expenses and performance fees are increasingly high. Even a major event, such as the well-organized and well-attended 16 Dance Research Journal 34/2 (Winter 2002) This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Natyanjali festival that takes place in February in the temple town of Chidambaram, meets costs with difficulty. As a result, festival organizers are sometimes forced to seek dancers with large sponsorships behind them. At Natyanjali 2001, for example, Aishwarya, the daughter of the ultra-popular Tamil cinema icon Rajini Kanth, opened the prestigious event on Shivaratri. A young woman with no established record as a performer, Aishwarya delivered a perform- ance described by one critic as "incomplete and devoid of elegance" (Ramani 2001). With the exception of people like Rajini Kanth, few Indians can compete with the eco- nomic clout of NRIs. As a result, increasing numbers of performers in Chennai are the daugh- ters of those living abroad. Many South Asian transnationals send their children to dance les- sons not with the aim of making them into dancers, but to expose them to Indian culture (Niyogi-Nakra 1998). Performing in India becomes a source of pride for immigrants, for whom ethnic identity is often predicated on the "traditional" cultural values they believe are embodied by India's classical arts (Maira 2002; Mukhi 2000). Some seek chances to perform whether or not they are ready to take the stage, a fact that many Chennai-based dancers I inter- viewed lamented, some even to the point of feeling that local dancers were at risk of being dis- placed. The political economy of dance criticism also bends production in favor of those who are fortified with money. Dance reviews from leading publications such as The Hindu, The Times of India, or India Today are highly prized, as they are instrumental in obtaining further per- formance opportunities both locally and abroad. Appearing in the newspaper is also a source of social prestige, the importance of which cannot be overlooked within a system where both economic and symbolic capital are critical factors in the tooth-and-nail competition for social standing. It is not uncommon for dancers to hound critics for reviews, showing up at their homes to personally invite them to performances or to present them with gifts or even outright offerings of money. One critic writes about a well-known colleague who is rumored to solicit fees for his reviews, with NRIs allegedly charged at higher rates (Ramani 1998). The emphasis on dance reviews is a product of the heavy competition that exists by virtue of the fact that there are so many dancers. Like any supply-heavy economy, marketing is a cru- cial factor in commanding any sort of regular presence. As one teacher described, "Self-pro- motion has itself become an art."5 Hyperbolic language and decontextualized citations from reviews are standard elements in a dancer's press packet. Detailing one's dance activities abroad offers ample opportunity to create unsubstantiated claims to glory. I myself remember an article I ran across about five years ago in the prestigious dance and music journal Sruti, published in Chennai, which mentioned a two-day workshop in "contemporary choreography in bharatanatyam" that I had attended in New York. Both the photograph and the text might easily have allowed a reader to conclude that the workshop had generated some amount of interest. Actually, I had been one of only two participants! By way of another example, one critic told me about a time when a highly successful dancer insisted that he describe her recent gigs in the United States as a "coast-to-coast tour." "I wanted to laugh! She was making her- self sound like Madonna or Bruce Springsteen. But all she did was get on Singapore Airlines, fly to Los Angeles and perform for a few hundred in some Hindu temple and then fly right to New York and do the same." Unfortunately, claims like hers go far in enabling one to seek more opportunities to perform in India. Once a dancer has secured a performance date, there are substantial production costs to meet. In Chennai, almost all dance concerts are free. Patronage of the performing arts has all 34/2 (Winter 2002) Dance Research Journal 17 This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms but disappeared and government support is minimal. This means that the individual dancer not only receives nothing for the performance, but also that she or he must frequently meet all of the production costs. The heaviest cot may be the orchestral accompaniment, which would include several rehearsals in addition to a performance fee. Then there are payments to be made to technicians, makeup artists, costume tailors, and set designers. One dancer I spoke with was adamant about NRIs being in part responsible for creating inflated expectations on the part of dance collaborators, thereby driving up the costs of production even for local dancers. Economic expectations on the part of dance teachers are also in the picture. One scholar summarized the situation: We don't have gurus today. We have greedy teachers now. A guru was a per- son who would sit by the sea, was not very interested in school. Those who made the effort in trudging all the way to his village wherever, he would say, "OK, come." If you paid him 10 rupees he was happy, if you did not pay him 10 rupees he was not unhappy. He was not on the market. There's a big dif- ference. When you teach like say, abhinaya, now, it's in a highly publicized two-week workshop costing some few thousand rupees or whatever. That's called commodification of art. And if we are talking that dancers are mediocre, its because gurus are mediocre. They are just market-savvy and seminar-oriented gurus, who like their name everywhere and like to float in and out of committees. It is hardly a secret that NRIs and other foreigners are willing and able to pay prices up to many times the going local rates for classes. Some of the young local dancers I met asserted that some teachers treat foreign or NRI students preferentially, irrespective of their talents, because of the hope that such students might one day create opportunities for the teacher her- self or himself to perform and teach abroad. Because foreigners often come to India only for limited periods of time and with the aim of returning home with more pieces to perform, reper- tory items are sold to them like commodities. Local dancers also increasingly pay for dance choreographies. This trend is linked to changes in the traditional format of teaching and audi- ence demand for new performance material. Concurrent with increased commodification of choreography is the growth in the market for recordings of dance music. It is still the case that most bharatanatyam recitals in Chennai have live music. Outside India, where fewer musicians are available for regular performances, taped music is the norm. Those who operate schools abroad are sometimes willing to pay exorbitant rates for studio sessions of Chennai musicians. Seeing such outlays as investments, many in turn sell dance accompaniment to students at their own schools. Recognizing that dance can be a profitable business, many Chennaite dancers have opened schools throughout the city, to the point where, as one leading dancer put it, "dance schools are a choc-a-block." Those who run such establishments may or may not be recog- nized experts in the field, which does not prevent them from receiving large numbers of stu- dents and cranking out arangetrams (debut concerts) by the score. As a result, there are unprecedented numbers of people proclaiming themselves to be dancers and giving concerts throughout the city on almost any night of the week. 18 Dance Research Journal 34/2 (Winter 2002) This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Performance Bharatanatyam is a dynamic artistic form, one that has a long history of adaptation and in vation. The past decade especially, however, has seen many changes in the quality and form of performance, to the point where many artists wonder what direction the dance will take the next decade. Foremost is a decline in the overall quality of dancing, largely a result of th being too many dancers and the increased importance of money as the deciding factor in artistic life. Although local politics and influence have always played a role in determinin who gets to perform at leading venues, many would agree that in the past most of the danc performing regularly had achieved some level of excellence. Today, however, many regul concertgoers and leading dancers complain about a lack of technical mastery and expressiv artistry, except in the case of the handful of truly dedicated artists. Even dancers featured major performance spaces and festivals can be inexperienced and unskilled in their physic execution and improvisation. First of all, with respect to physical techniques, basic positions, namely the ardhamand (similar to a low demi-plie), are in many cases no longer maintained. Basic adavus (steps) d not begin and return neatly to any starting point and often do not even clearly execute intended rhythm. Movements with the arms often lack clear shape. The impact for the vie is that basic principles of technique, which can be found across the many styles of the dan form, are harder to spot. As one older woman, who does not consider herself a connoisseur rather a longtime fan of dance, told me laughingly as she waved her arms wildly, "Moving t way and that... some of these dancers these days look as sharp as me wearing a costume running to dance on the stage!" At the same time, perhaps because technical excellenc harder to come by, those who possess it are rightfully recognized and held up as models. example, people commonly refer to the spectacularly grounded and open ardhamandali of t star, Urmila Satyanarayan, as a standard to which a dancer should aspire. There are multiple reasons for what many regard as a disheartening decline in techni mastery. To begin with, dance training is far less intensive and purposeful. Gone are the d of the gurukul system, in which student and teacher engaged in extensive interaction over period of years. Now most students learn by taking class as often as their busy schedules w allow. Tremendous competition for seats in colleges places an onerous burden on young p ple who must spend endless hours preparing for critical exams. Few middle-class families would be happy at the idea of their son or daughter becoming an artist, preferring instead they devote themselves to more lucrative and socially recognized fields, such as medicine computer science, or engineering. As a result, studying dance is not a primary focus, and i purpose is rarely to become a professional, full-time performer. Many of those who come to the dance do not see it so much as an art to be practiced w care, as yet another achievement that one can then list along with one's other attributes accomplishments. Among the first questions one will be asked when telling someone that o studies dance is, "Have you finished your course?" By this the questioner means to k whether one has learned an entire set of pieces that comprise the repertory of a bharatanatyam concert and whether one has completed one's arangetram. Seeing the aran tram as a kind of graduation implies that one's work is somehow done. Performing artists say, however, that the arangetram actually marks the beginning of a much more arduous v ture, the process of transforming oneself into an artist being a much longer road than the leading up to one's debut. 19 34/2 (Winter 2002) Dance Research Journal This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  So why study dance? Today, dance is associated with being cultured and having class. The irony in this view lies on two levels. First, until elites in Madras took an interest in this art form in the first half of the twentieth century, it carried the heavy stigma of the class of devadasi women who practiced it. Second, while most of today's dancers are high caste and at least middle-class, patriarchal attitudes about women's bodies taking center stage continue to pose problems at the level of the family for women who wish to perform. Many of even the top stars must fight against the wishes of husbands and in-laws to continue their careers after marriage. Nevertheless, these days in Chennai, having studied dance is believed to lend a young woman a kind of polish and femininity useful in beefing up her marriageability quo- tient.7 Ads seeking marriage alliances in newspapers and online routinely list knowledge of music and dance alongside other relevant data, such as skin color, education, and caste. Thus, while many dancers are being produced, few choose to refine their skills or perform for many years. The fact that many dancers work at other professions is another important reason behind the decrease in physical skill that one sees onstage. Rising costs of living in India, combined with the paucity of funds for dance, make working another job almost a requirement for any- one other than the independently wealthy. The Indian economy does not support the idea of a "part-time" job, so familiar to actors, dancers, and visual artists in the United States and parts of Europe. Working, therefore, usually means attending a job full-time in addition to meeting the demands of household duties. This leaves women very little time for dance. Unfortunately, practicing with less regularity makes it more difficult to maintain the perfection of the dance's form. Bharatanatyam requires both strength and stamina to execute well. It also mandates a lot of what my own guru referred to as "mental work," in order to be able to effectively con- vey the meaning of the narrative lines. As one teacher pointed out, "If you want to dance on the stage, then it has to be what you do off the stage also. You should always be dancing, every day. Now, everyone has so much other work that they are not dancing and not living the dance in their minds either." Paradoxically, while there are more dancers who are less proficient, there is growing pres- sure on those who do have good physical technique to demonstrate their prowess at every turn. In recent years nritta (non-narrative, rhythmic dance movement) has attained an unprece- dented importance, to the point where it has become an almost codified display of mandatory virtuosity. Complex tinmanams (rhythmic sequences) performed with dazzling speed and alacrity bring consistent applause. Lamenting the fact that many celebrated young dancers were looking these days like "mechanical dolls," one scholar commented, "Because people do not know much of poetry or feeling, they try to impress with technical virtuosity and it has in the process become a mainstay. But how long can you appreciate this? Maybe for half an hour and you can't see it many times." Echoing these sentiments, a young dancer explained, "The whole point of the tirmanams used to be to just wake up the audience. Now the whole focus is on how well these sequences are executed rather than on how well someone is dancing." Changes of technique are not solely a question of a moving away from conformity to pre- viously widely held standards. Present-day dance training has also facilitated the tendency toward a kind of local hybridization of what were once distinct styles of bharatanatyam. This dance form has long been associated with several lineages or schools. Stylistic differences can be as fundamental as the distance allowed between the two heels in the ardhamandali, the position of the arms in an adavu, or the proper expression to be held on the face during the 20 Dance Research Journal 34/2 (Winter 2002) This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms nritta portions. They also encompass such things as the musical compositions that form basic repertory, the complexity of nattuvangam (the composition of rhythmic sequences accompa- nied by the recitation of syllables), and costume styling. Bharatanatyam represents an oral tra- dition, in which the transmission of cultural knowledge depended on face-to-face interaction between people over an extensive period of time. With the passing of traditional gurus, who were individuals invested for a lifetime in preserving the intricacies of a particular sampra- daya (school), much of the information about a given lineage is being lost. Concurrently, many of the dance institutions these days bring together instructors from a variety of schools, so that students come to perform a kind of composite of many styles.8 This is especially the case for dancers who now are trained in college degree-awarding programs. For example, when I asked a young woman graduate of an arts college near Pondicherry what style of bharatanatyam she did, she replied, "Oh, it's kind of Kalakshetra style, but then there are some other things thrown in... you know how it is." The commodification of dance repertory also contributes to this trend. Studying a short time with a number of gurus with the aim of acquir- ing more repertory, many dancers perform items from schools other than their own and with- out the nuances that may have marked a given item's performance in the past. With respect to the narrative aspects of the dance, many changes can be seen in the per- formance of abhinaya. Generally speaking, abhinaya is now far simpler than in the past. For those who train in the dance outside of India, even the most common mythological themes can be challenging. A well-regarded male dancer in Chennai told me of a time when a friend of his, who runs a dance school in California, phoned him long distance desperately seeking help. The woman was putting on a big group production of DasAvatar (The Ten Incarnations of Lord Vishnu). She was in a panic over not remembering the proper mudra (hand gesture) for showing Vishnu in his form of matsya (fish). Incredible as it seems that a teacher could forget something so basic, it is less surprising if one considers the fact that many of those who run schools outside India had never intended to become professional dancers, let alone teachers, during their years growing up and studying dance in India. With the ample market for dance instruction among South Asian immigrant populations, many people who may have received only average amounts of training growing up in Chennai convert themselves into gurus. As for more complex ideas in the abhinaya, there is a tendency to lock onto the same ways of expressing what are actually subtle and complicated passages of text. Today onstage in Chennai, facial expressions are often highly theatricalized, to the point where they even resemble the kinds of acting you see in Indian films. For example, dancers in the past relied to varying degrees on carefully selected metaphors to suggest that a heroine was miserable in the agony of love. Today it is not uncommon to see a more literal interpretation, such as a dancer's eyes glittering with tears. This move from connotation to denotation in abhinaya is in part a move to accommodate an audience more oriented to film and television and less knowledgeable about dance.9 It is also a function of the fact that in a large auditorium, a highly refined abhinaya can be readily appreciated only by the audience members sitting in the first few rows, where the face can be viewed in detail. The narratives that abhinaya seeks to express have also simplified. This is in part because many dancers do not have thorough knowledge of the languages in which songs are sung. Young middle-class residents of Chennai do not even have a firm command of Tamil, the lan- guage of many dance compositions. Furthermore, many lack an overall knowledge of the mythology and literature that would permit them to explore poetry with greater sophistication 34/2 (Winter 2002) Dance Research Journal 21 This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms and to improvise for longer periods of time upon any single line. This is especially the case for those dancers trained abroad, who, in fact, often lack the knowledge and ability to impro- vise at all and instead dance fixed choreographies. Even in the case of local dancers, how- ever-with the exception of a handful of very hardworking and talented individuals-their average level of knowledge may not compare with that of previous generations of dancers, which they conceal by changing the repertory that they perform with every single perform- ance. As one old-timer remarked to me, "With some of these youngsters, since they never dance the same piece twice, we simply cannot tell how much they are able to understand and create from any one piece." It used to be that a particular dancer might dance the same var- nam (the musical-dance composition that forms the centerpiece of a full-length concert) for a long time, even at several consecutive performances. In today's environment in which too many dancers are competing for dwindling audience, it would not be possible to dance the same items as frequently, since spectators have a strong desire to see something "new." Changing audience expectations have fomented many changes in the format and content of bharatanatyam concerts in Chennai. Bharatanatyam is highly codified and requires a sig- nificant level of connoisseurship in order to be understood beyond a surface level. As the pace of middle-class urban life has intensified and live performance has been replaced by television as the primary source of entertainment, fewer people are keen generally to attend dance con- certs. Even major venues, such as the Madras Music Academy during its prime December sea- son that features the top artists from all over India, find fewer numbers filling once packed halls. A quick glance around these auditoriums shows that most audience members are of a generation that is now sixty years old and over. Creating and sustaining interest in the dance form is a task faced by most dancers in one way or another. As a result, to speak of a single dance scene is not fully accurate, as there are actually different kinds of programs going on in the city that appeal to different kinds of audiences. A concert that other dedicated professional dancers regard as quality art may draw only fifty people. Programs that succeed in drawing larger numbers are often regarded by other artists as too entertainment- or novelty-oriented. These kinds of presentations, however, are more frequently offered in the city. To appeal to more people, and especially keeping in mind that the majority of them do not understand in detail much of what they see, many bharatanatyam concerts no longer adhere to the conventional margam of repertory, in which the dance pieces follow a set sequence of gen- res from the alarippu through to the tillana and are performed by a single, solo dancer. Audiences prefer watching either a series of short pieces performed by a succession of differ- ent dancers or group "ballets" in which mythological stories with many characters are enacted with several dancers at once. Some group choreographies of classical dance reach such a scale that they resemble the dance scenes in old Indian films, in which countless numbers of dancers seem to fill the entire screen. A number performed by students of the cinema star and dancer Shobhana at the Music Academy in the summer of 2001 featured what appeared to be perhaps fifty or more dancers onstage at once! In addition, many shows are now oriented around par- ticular themes, such as dances about Krishna, or the compositions of a particular composer, such as the Swathi Thirunal festival of the Madras Malayali Club. Not all themes are tradi- tional. Some dancers concern themselves with social issues, using classical dance to address present-day situations, such as the condition of street children, the environment, or the con- flicting demands made on the modern, urban woman. 22 Dance Research Journal 34/2 (Winter 2002) This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  The emphasis on finding new modes of expression in classical dance manifests itself simultaneously in the growing movement of what I refer to as Indian contemporary dance. This recent phenomenon must be viewed in relation to India's traditional performance and martial arts traditions, in addition to factors such as the training of some Indian artists in mod- em dance abroad and the travel of American and European artists to work with dancers in India. It is difficult to define this form of dance, as there are still relatively few artists creat- ing work in this line and because they rely to a greater or lesser degree on traditional vocab- ularies. Dance in India today must be seen as falling along a kind of continuum with varying degrees of relationship to preexisting forms. For example, the work of Daksha Seth, who has not had any Western training but has instead conducted a thorough exploration of the classi- cal dance kathak and the Kerala martial art kalarippayattu, is based on the creation of a new movement vocabulary. The dancer Padma Subramaniam, on the other hand, remains closely tied to the bharatanatyam in which she was trained. The thematic content and the addition of folk performance elements, however, set her dances apart from standard classical presenta- tions. There are many dancers today both in India and abroad working in this way, continuing to present themselves as bharatanatyam exponents even as they seek to expand the range of what constitutes this art form. Perspectives Developments in India and abroad spark a wide range of opinions from local artists, produc- ers, critics, and scholars in Chennai. There is a general frustration on the part of many partic- ipants in the dance scene over the growing number of bad dancers. A sense of urgency seems to pervade discussions about the future of the art form, even as individuals disagree on what kinds of measures might curb the erosion of quality, or even if it is possible to rescue the dance at all from an inevitable death. Extreme points of view, and all shades in between, speak to the thorny questions of what exactly constitutes Indian "tradition" and what its role will be in a rapidly changing India. The conservative point of view, taken by those who spent their youth regularly attending performances of top dancers in the days when such dancers could be counted on the fingers of one hand, disparages any accommodation (in their view) made toward changing audience tastes. As one old-timer confided, "Our dance was a sacred, ancient tradition, a prayer for the god and an inspiration for the audience. Now it is only entertainment and they will do any vul- gar, easy thing." Yet disappointment over the present state of dance is not a sentiment confined to the older generation. Many young people are equally concerned, to the point where some view their own practice of the art as a kind of political stance. For example, the Chennai-based collective Tapasya Kala Sampradaya, led by dancers who promote themselves as students of the late K. P. Kittappa Pillai, a descendant of the Tanjore Quartet'o and one of the last tradi- tional gurus, made a strong statement in the program notes for their concert of March 20, 2001, at the Hotel de l'Orient in Pondicherry: Tapasya Kala Sampradaya is an alliance of dancers, researchers and dance teachers who hold certain beliefs in common: that excellence in the field of bharatanatyam needs to be defended against the money-influence nexus; that performances in the present are marred by superfluous decoration (in cos- tume, for instance), and need to be pared down to the essential. 34/2 (Winter 2002) Dance Research Journal 23 This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Other young dancers have responded in other ways to the decline of the dance field. The question for some is not so much that tradition is no longer relevant, as that it has been so restricted in its practice that its full complexity and diversity of themes is unavailable to audi- ences. A young woman who has dedicated herself to performing only her own choreography within the traditional bharatanatyam format, and whose teacher is fully supportive of her efforts, explained, "In varnams there is not much variety [of theme], but in padams, there is so much that is there. There are so many composers and so many different situations pre- sented, but people never choose them because they say it's unacceptable for what they think a woman should be or a man should be." The same woman told of a time some years earlier when a dancer, who is highly regarded by young and old alike, performed in a competition a traditional but rarely seen padam in which a woman informs a man that her husband is out and that now is a good time for them to play around. According to this informant, it was strongly believed that the dancer, who seemed for most observers to be by far the most worthy of the prize, lost the contest on the grounds of having performed such a piece. Moreover, some time elapsed before this artist, who is accustomed to performing regularly, was given an opportu- nity to dance on another stage. There are others who assert that it is only through innovation that the dance can escape its present stagnation. Contrary to the views of the young woman above, these dancers feel that the repertory offered by tradition is antiquated. Only in making dance themes relevant to pres- ent-day situations and attitudes can bharatanatyam survive with any life. This is not always viewed as a departure from tradition, however. It is interesting that those who endorse such efforts sometimes draw on a particular interpretation of the Natyasastra, the Sanskrit text that details the purpose and proper dimensions for theatrical presentation, in order to support inno- vation. For example, one scholar pointed out, "A very prominent line in the Natyasastra estab- lishes that what is prevalent in society has to be reflected in dance. That is the definition given by the earliest treatise for dance and theater. So we are not really deviating if we are changing themes. We are not really compromising in quality or tradition if we are changing themes. Any theme, so long as it is there in society, then it is fine." Some feel that such efforts are attempts to camouflage a dancer's scanty knowledge of lit- erature and abhinaya. The same holds for much of the so-called experimentation that goes on at the level of movement vocabulary. Arguing that most innovators are not significantly exploring the form, one scholar told me: The question for dancers given the present state of affairs is where do you go from here? So, they have all been experimenting, innovating and saying they are carrying the tradition farther. Now these are three very great terms. There is a whole new school of dancers now who cannot perform margam properly. So they say, tradition is forever evolving. We are adding to it. So if you can't stand in araimandi properly, and you can't do adavus or anything else prop- erly, you say, "This is my contribution." The claim just falls flat. They will do one production combining kathak footwork with a kathakali mudra and a bharatanatyam face. That is their version of experimentation and it is only a half-baked mixture. 24 Dance Research Journal 34/2 (Winter 2002) This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms As this quotation reveals, some voices express criticism not on the grounds that tradition should remain fixed, but out of suspicion that many who are attempting changes in the dance's format do not have a firm enough grounding from which to investigate and then create new forms that have any kind of artistic weight or staying power. As one scholar put it, "When you have rice, you can make biriyani, payasam, or tayar sadam. But without rice, you can't use anything else. You have to have basic material in order to make something." Those who speak against innovations are often accused of being reactionary. In his keynote address at the twentieth annual Natya Kala conference in Chennai, Sri Shyamanand Jalan, a man involved in various aspects of theater in India, stated: It has to be recognized that a dancer is a dancer first of all. Then comes the style and the form. He or she has no obligation to preserve the ancient culture or heritage, or be a crusader for its preservation and revival. If he or she has to survive, he or she has to make adjustments with the changing times and the changing tastes. I find a lack of this basic understanding. The dance world is dominated by the purists both amongst the critics and the art administrators. (Jalan 2000) In the same speech, however, Jalan acknowledged that many dancers today are "people with limited talents" and raised the question about whether "the truly meritorious" were the artists who rose to the top. With so much anxiety over the present state of the art, it is little wonder that there is uncer- tainty about bharatanatyam's future. Some observers are optimistic, citing the dance's history of flexibility, accommodation, and resilience. One very prominent dancer exclaimed to me, "So we know that the format of margam and all came only after the Tanjore Quartet. But we also know that some kind of form of this dance had existed for long before, even for thousands of years. It has always been changing, and has always survived. To say that it will disappear does not make any sense and is simply a very rigid view. I think bharatanatyam will always be there and it will always be beautiful." Others are optimistic because they believe that in spite of the deluge of bad dancers, a few fully dedicated professionals are charting a bright course for the form's future. As one young artist put it, "Even with all the frustration, real pro- fessionals are leading very exciting artistic lives. Not only do they have to follow standards for technical excellence, but they also have to demonstrate creativity. As a result so many new styles and new possibilities are arising." This viewpoint stands at sharp odds with the sentiments of those who believe that the dance has already all but met with its demise. A well-known dance critic, one known for his open-mindedness toward innovation and support for Indian "contemporary dance," con- cluded, "It is very tragic that in the last century we saw the revival of all our traditional arts, and within the same period of one hundred years, it will all die." These ominous words, which speak to the state of the traditional folk and classical performing arts of India generally, should not be too easily dismissed as mere pessimism, as they are based on a highly valid interpreta- tion of a range of present indicators. It is unfortunate that this viewpoint is not heard enough when Indian dance is discussed by dancers and scholars abroad. It is true that the issues for bharatanatyam and other forms are different in the foreign context, where concerns focus more on the need to break out of the 34/2 (Winter 2002) Dance Research Journal 25 This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms confining "ethnic dance" category to which funding sources and critics have often relegated such dances.' Nevertheless, in the context of bharatanatyam having become truly a global dance form, discussions about diasporic practices and challenges should not overlook the fact that the dance as practiced in its original context is changing and that the relationship between local practitioners and those living abroad is far more complex than ideas such as "artistic exchange" imply. In her paper, "Moving Margins: South Asian Dance in the UK," presented at the Natya Kala conference in 2000, Naseem Khan elaborated on the ways in which South Asian artists in Britain have successfully moved their art form beyond the margins. With respect to how these developments relate to interaction with artists in India, she stated: Over this same time, the relationship with dancers in India has also undergone change. It is one of professional exchange and not approbation. It is one of equality rather than of patronage. Choreographers and music composers cre- ate new work for presentation here and abroad including back in India. Teachers come from India to conduct master classes and workshops and, in turn, learn new ways of teaching-across and within culture. It works because aesthetic sensibilities are widening as dance in India shifts its own margins; "Indian" culture is no longer a monolithic construct owned by the urban, edu- cated revivalist. (Khan 2000) This view reflects a lack of awareness of what is going on currently with the performing arts in India and how many of those involved feel about developments. It also reveals a lack of insight into the ways in which the participation of NRIs may have facilitated shifts in local production. To endorse the widening of Indian aesthetic sensibilities seems an empty celebra- tion if not tempered with an eye to how many Indian artists, scholars, and critics are concerned about the quality and future of both innovative and traditional forms. Summary Bharatanatyam has a long history of adaptation and modification. In recent years, change has accelerated and will continue to do so alongside the dramatic economic and social shifts tak- ing place in India. A look at the current state of the dance's production in Chennai shows clearly that the increasing commodification of the art form places those with economic and social resources at a significant advantage. As for the format and quality of performance, the large number of dancers works in two directions: few master the form in either its technical or expressive aspects so that little of what one now sees routinely onstage conforms to what were previously widely accepted standards; and, a surplus of dancers has fueled competition for performance opportunities. All dancers must somehow face the task of captivating a dwin- dling pool of spectators and creating new audiences. Some have responded by attempting to provide audiences with something "new," either changes in the format of performance, pre- senting contemporary themes, or exploring movement vocabularies to a greater or lesser degree. The decrease in overall quality of performance, whether with respect to dancing that adheres to "tradition" or somehow attempts to build upon it, has left many participants in the dance scene in Chennai nervous about how bharatanatyam will move into the future. While not all viewpoints on the subject are apocalyptic, many people believe that the form will 26 Dance Research Journal 34/2 (Winter 2002) This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms inevitably depart from the standards and schools that have characterized it for the last several decades, and that future generations of dancers may not have a rigorous basis from which to begin. It is easy to collapse such perspectives into naive nostalgia for the artistic glories of a fantasy past. Taken in a more constructive way, however, listening to concerns about the direc- tion the dance is going locally provides a broader context from which to consider the dance's movement across national and cultural boundaries. The case of bharatanatyam demonstrates the ways in which globalization must be und stood as a field of tensions that play out both in India and abroad. Against the backdrop of already global history involving colonialism, nationalism, and the travel of Indian and West artists, bharatanatyam today emerges as an entity shaped by local conflicts in Chennai as w as immigrant fantasies and the global market. Celebrating the dance's proliferation outsid India without taking into consideration the voices of Indian observers does not allow one grasp the full complexity of the production and performance of this thoroughly contempora traditional art form. Acknowledgements Funding for this research was provided by a junior fellowship from the American Institute Indian Studies. I would like to thank Smt. Nandini Ramani for her expert supervision and guidance during my time in India. I would also like to acknowledge Xavier Andrade for h comments made on drafts of this article. Notes 1. Featherstone argues that loosely defined terms, such as "global culture," gloss over the fact there is a wide variety of responses to processes of globalization and that what exists is more on the order of "global cultures in the in thplural" (Featherstone 1990, 8). McGrew (1992) points out that it is important to remember that globalization's effects can never be evenly distributed, given the world's economic and social inequities. 2. King speaks about the need to consider globalization through the arts, as opposed to a social science perspective. He makes the argument for looking at the contents and context of artistic performance as they manifest in "global cities," which are "increasingly significant political and cultural formations that, until now, have been conceptualized and researched more in economic than social and cultural terms" (King 1997, xii). In looking at artistic production in a city such as Chennai, I am concerned not only with exploring global processes from the "margins," but also with underscoring the fact that much of what takes place artistically in the world's centers of capital (as global cities are often defined) is linked to artistic developments in other places. 3. See Kersenboom-Story (1987) for a detailed ethnographic treatment of the class of women performers, known as devadasis, and the dasi attam that they practiced. Meduri (1996) pro- vides an account of the circumstances that surrounded the ban of the devadasi practice during the colonial period. 4. For a thorough discussion of the political and cultural impacts of NRI money circulating in India within the context of Hindu nationalism, see Rajagopal (2001). As for the policing of Indian culture, restrictions placed upon artistic and intellectual freedom by the State are noth- ing new but have intensified during the years of the right-wing-led BJP government (Banerjee 2000; Mody 2002; Noorani 2000; Thapar 2000). 27 34/2 (Winter 2002) Dance Research Journal This content downloaded from 100.42.131.65 on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:40:11 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 5. Interviews for this research were conducted in Chennai from May 2000 to July 2001, and again during August 2002. Because the world of music and dance is small and competitive, its inhab- itants engaged in all kinds of one-upmanship and even backbiting, dancers, critics, and schol- ars can feel a real need to be cautious of what they say. For this reason, I felt it important from the outset to guarantee anonymity to all of my informants. Moreover, as debates in the cultural field in India are frequently personalized, it was my hope to highlight the issues, rather than contribute to a "who-said-what" kind of dialogue. 6. There is tension caused by the privatization of culture as government funding diminishes, on the one hand, and insufficient patronage by citizens or corporations to support a flourishing arts scene, on the other. 7. There may be regional differences in this regard. A young kuchipudi dancer from Hyderabad complained to me that her parents had been hounding her to stop dancing and start working out in the gym in order to make herself more attractive to prospective bridegrooms. Based on the experience of several of her dancer friends, she felt that Hyderabad was far less tolerant of women occupying public roles in cultural life and that, therefore, unlike in Chennai, dance training was seen as a liability in the marriage market. 8. This is not altogether a new phenomenon. The biggest school, Kalakshetra, established by Rukmini Devi in 1938, brought together distinct styles from the earliest days of the institution, and also incorporated elements of kathakali into the bharatanatyam training and performance. 9. The influence of Indian films on the classical and folk arts poses an interesting counterpoint to globalization, as it points to a history of the internal commodification of cultural practices that stands separate from world market forces and India's efforts to market its cultural identity abroad through art. As noted by Appadurai and Breckenridge (1995), Indian modernity is a product both of local cultural and historical trajectories, and the flow of images, ideologies, and capital from other global sites. 10. The Tanjore Quartet refers to four brothers who were musicians in the court of Serfoji II in Thanjavur in the early nineteenth century. The codification of bharatanatyam into the margam format is attributed to them. 11. 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