Towards a British Natyam

: Creating a ‘British’ classical Indian dance profession

Abstract

Towards a British Natyam considers what it takes to establish a ‘profession’ – through the specific lens of classical Indian dance in Britain.
My thesis is that classical Indian dance forms have not as yet been able to determine an autonomous professional field in Britain, governed by its own values and principles, or in Bourdieu’s terms, doxa. To permit the development of such a field, I argue for a critical examination of the frameworks – cultural, socio-economic and political - within which South Asian dancers in our contemporary era create their work. Honouring the call for decolonial work to ‘unmask and deconstruct the western hegemony’ in the field of humanities and other disciplines, my thesis unmasks and deconstructs systemic inequalities in the British cultural sector. In this light, the work to establish an autonomous field of South Asian dance in Britain is, I argue, inextricably linked with the wider and necessary work of decolonisation, decentring white supremacist modes of knowledge formation, and centring pluriversality in dance artistry. In making this case, my thesis contributes to the understanding of the impacts of cultural/racial stereotyping and labelling through the lens of dance.
Drawing on ethnography, social history and sociological theories I argue that the development of an autonomous professional field for classical Indian dance forms is essential both to prevent their
fetishisation on one hand and their submersion within the dominant ‘technical habitus of EuroAmerican contemporary dance on the other. The work for this I suggest, requires a transformation
of the ‘national cultural canon’ so as to allow the values, narratives and conventions of a multiplicity of art forms the space to thrive. Such a transformation will allow the flourishing not only of Indian classical dance forms and their practitioners but of every person who is thereby given a greater range of pathways towards fulfilment and meaning

Date of Award	25 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Roehampton
Sponsors	University of Roehampton Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship
Supervisor	Ann R. David (Director of Studies), Alexandra Kolb (Supervisor) & Avanthi Meduri (Supervisor)