Dance as a medium to deal with social issues – The Hindu

Seven years after Nirbhaya was gang-raped and tortured on a bus in Delhi, four of her killers were hanged at 5.30 a.m. at Tihar Jail on March 20, 2020. Millions in India and around the globe celebrated. The judiciary may have delivered a just verdict but are mere legal remedies enough? Despite the initial shock and horror that the Nirbhaya incident evoked, violence against women continues. The question still remains whether women are free to walk the streets of any village, town, or major city in the world at any time of day or night?

Anthropologist and dancer, Saskia Kersenboom writes in her article, Bhoga-Sakti: The Silent Witness to the Life of Devadasis, the word bhoga refers to delight, enjoyment and sensuous experience and that Telugu speaking communities referred to devadasis as bhogam. In addition, a devadasi functioned as a proxy to the goddess both in the temple and outside for the well being of society. She learned dance and music and was the repository of artistic knowledge. Perhaps for centuries, India had a balanced perspective on the erotic, as evidenced in early devadasi practices, but partly because of colonialism, there was a shift in thinking by the nineteenth and early twentieth century which led to the abolition of devadasi practices. As a result of the adoption of Victorian era moral codes, among other factors, erotic poetry that had been previously acceptable was now censored and considered a moral depravity. Art historian and curator Naman Ahuja in his article, The Responsibility for Protecting Erotica, points out, the more we censor and repress erotica, the worse the offences against women will get.

Collaborative approach

S3: Sthree: Woman is a multi-year, multidisciplinary, inter-cultural work in development that deals with violence against women. The collaborative work between us (Priyadarsini Govind and Dr. Priya Srinivasan) with Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi (violinist/composer), Uthra Vijay (Carnatic singer/composer), Ching Ching Ho (Director/dramaturgy), Dr. Philipa Rothfield (philosopher and dance writer) and Arun Munoz (photography), suggests why the classical arts contain possibilities to uphold social justice issues in this work. Bringing together Ching Ching, who works as a translator and director, and Philipa, who is trained in contemporary movement and feminist philosophical thought enables the sharing of the work to diverse audiences.

The performance pares down the classical dance music ensemble to a solo voice and instrument. The unique addition is a Carnatic music choir (Keerthana Womens Choir) which represents the collective female voice and is an important physical and aural theatrical presence in the production. Using the device of interruption, the experimental work toggles in time between excerpts of the 3rd century epic poem, The Devi Mahatmyam, and police reports of the Nirbhaya and Jill Meagher incidents in Delhi and Melbourne in 2012.

Priya: The idea came after the Nirbhaya protests were sparked. I wanted to find out how the classical forms I was trained in could speak about this issue. Around this time I saw Priyadarsini perform her famous Devi piece and was deeply moved by its beauty and power. The advertising campaign in India on Abused Goddesses which came out in 2013 also had a deep impact on me. I began thinking about how to weave the power, beauty and raw energy of the Goddess killing asuras with the demons of the 21st century. Earlier iterations of this work included collaborations with Uthra Vijay in Barcelona and flamenco artistes such as Alba Guerrero in 2018 and with Hari Sivanesan (veena artiste) and Jay Dabgar (tabla player) in Melbourne in 2017/2019 asking what would happen if musicians moved to become characters in the piece, and dancers spoke, to ask how we can call upon the goddess now? I wanted to use the beauty of the classical forms including ancient Sanskrit texts and harness them to the raw power of contemporary incidents of violence from police reports to see what it could create.

Priyadarsini: As a performing artiste, my goal is to understand the beauty of a text and then to visualise and capture it in my interpretation for the experience of the viewer. The composition has a latent power in and of itself and the training I have received is to go deep inside it. I harness my training to visualise the meaning within the text and remain faithful to the composers intent. When I ventured into a production like S3 that is experimental, both theatre and dance and not a traditional dance piece, that uses different texts, I had to strike a balance between my training and how to communicate social issues. I had to re-learn my medium and adapt my style to communicate the violence of the Sthree text through my art that is at once powerful and moving without losing the intrinsic beauty of the medium of dance. I had to find my voice within the text. What I have received from this work is the raw emotion and the power of a story that needs to be told.

Choir chanting

Both the Nirbhaya and Jill Meagher rape and murder incidents in 2012 gave rise to protest movements in Delhi, Melbourne and around the world. The performance production of S3 explores the female voice calling upon the Goddess when the human female body is subject to complete annihilation. Can the power of the collective female voice through the choir chanting of ancient hymns to the Goddess call her into existence? The intention of the production is to catalyse thoughts and responses in people and question why violence against women keeps occurring? Can the performance trigger the audience to feel their anguish and rage in a safe way inside the theatre space? How can performing this work enable artistes to reach audiences so they can tap into their emotions and move them into action?

Priyadarsini Govind is a national and international award winning Bharatanatyam dancer and artiste based in Chennai.

Dr. Priya Srinivasan is a dancer, curator and author of the book Sweating Saris: Indian Dance as Transnational Labour, based in Melbourne, Australia.

(Part 1 of the series appeared on march 19: https://www.thehindu.com/

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Dance as a medium to deal with social issues - The Hindu