It’s local, not global

Dance forms do betray their specific cultures, regions, and even religions; they cannot wear a universal tag

March 13, 2014 06:57 pm | Updated May 19, 2016 08:24 am IST - Mysore

Dance forms do betray their specific cultures, regions, and even religions.

Dance forms do betray their specific cultures, regions, and even religions.

Many dance forms around the world are striving towards a universal status. One hears of dance forms proudly being called ‘global’ dance forms. It is certainly a matter of pride that dance styles from around the world are gaining popularity and recognition all over the world. But somewhere in this discourse of universality, the fact that dance forms are region and culture specific is being forgotten, perhaps even deliberately ignored.

Dance forms, global as they may be, do bear signs of the region and culture in which they originated. Some forms of dance bear more obvious signs than others, but all of them do betray their specific cultures, regions, and even religions.

Indian classical dance forms are certainly an obvious case. For example – Bharatanatyam, a dance style that is hailed by many in dance discourses as a ‘global’ dance form, adheres quite strongly to South Indian and Hindu traditions. The language of the poetry that is danced to, the attire of the dancer, and the narratives are very culture-specific. The ancient poetry is traditionally in Tamil or Telugu and more recently Sanskrit. It gives away the region within India from where Bharatanatyam originates. Much more recently, one does see some Hindi bhajans in the Bharatanatyam repertoire. So one can argue that it has gone beyond its region, but it is still specific in terms of its nationality. Poetry aside, the attire of Bharatanatyam dancers is the silk sari (usually a Kanjeevaram sari), and temple jewellery. They wear a bindi as well – another thing that is specific to India. Moreover, the narratives often involve stories from Hindu mythology.

This is not to say that it cannot be a global dance form. I have repeatedly argued and always believed that Bharatanatyam is simultaneously traditional and modern, religious and secular, human and divine. And because of its emotive potential and power of interpretation, Bharatanatyam can be appreciated universally and globally. But it has to be said that the cultural memory attached to it cannot be erased by its universal appeal.

Another less obvious example is ballet, a dance form that most definitely has a global status. Anthropologist Joann Kealiinohomoku in her article ‘An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance’, talks about how dance scholars have been resistant to ballet being called an ethnic dance. So far western dance scholars have not accepted this idea. But Kealiinohomoku insists that it is good anthropology to see ballet as an ethnic dance. In other words, she lays emphasis on the culture and region specific nature of the dance form. Many things betray the Caucasian/European roots of ballet – the French terminology being an obvious hint. The flora and fauna depicted in ballet also give away its European roots – horses and swans are depicted, whereas crocodiles and elephants are not, even though they may be esteemed animals elsewhere in the world. The narratives are also very ‘western’ – “Think how culturally revealing it is to see the stylized western customs enacted on the stage”, says Kealiinohomoku. She asks why the western scholars are resistant to the idea that ballet reflects its own heritage, why we need to believe that ballet is acultural.

I have always been in favour of building bridges and blurring boundaries. Viewing dance forms as universal and global is part of this building and blurring. But to undermine the culture-specificity of dance forms in order to allow them global and universal status may not be such a good idea. Blurring these cultural boundaries might only lead to the erasure of the very region-specific things that make each dance form unique, fascinating and so wonderfully different from each other!

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