Dancing bodies of devotion : fluid gestures in Bharata natyam / Katherine C. Zubko.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zubko, Katherine C., author.

Series:

Studies in body and religion

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bharata natyam.

Dance--Religious aspects.

Dance.

Physical Description:

xvii, 251 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2014]

Summary:

Dancing Bodies of Devotion: Fluid Gestures in Bharata Natyam examines how Bharata Natyam, a traditionally Hindu storytelling dance form, moves across religious boundaries through both incorporating choreography on Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, and Jain themes and the pluralistic identities of participants. Dancers traverse religious boundaries by reformulating an aesthetic foundation based on performative rather than solely textual, understandings of casa, conventionally defined as a formula for how to physically craft emotion on stage. Thought the ethnographic case studies of this volume, dancers of Bharata Natyam innovatively demonstrate how the rasa of devotion (bhakti rasa), surprisingly absent from classic dance-related texts, serves as the pivotal framework for expanding on their own interreligious thematic and interpretive possibilities. In contemporary Bharata Natyam, bhakti rasa not just about enhancing religious experience instead, these dancers choreographically adapt various religious identities and ideas in order to emphasize pluralistic cultural and ethical dimensions in their work. Through the dancing body, multiple religious and secular interpretations fluidly coexist. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Religious Bodies 33

1 Rasa: A Taste of the Divine 37

2 Balasaraswati and Krishna Ni Begane Baro 47

3 Francis Barboza and Christian Themes 59

Conclusion: Bhakti Rasa: A Re-Personalized Aesthetic of Devotion 73

Part II Cultural Bodies 75

4 Rasa and Bhakti as Indian Categories 81

5 Dhanajayanas' Sanghanitra 93

6 Kalai Kaviri's Gayatri Mantra 105

Conclusion: Is There an Indian Way to Dance Devotion? 115

Part III Ethical Bodies 119

7 Natya as Visual Education and the Ethics of Rasa 123

8 Dhananjayans' Stree (Woman) 137

9 Monica Colley's Morality Tales and Bhagavad Gita Sabdam 147

Conclusion: An Ethics of Bhakti Rasa: Performance of a Moral Mood 167

Part IV Pluralisitic Bodies 171

10 Unity and Multiplicity of Rasa 175

11 Malini Srinivasan and Sufi Qawwali 181

12 Tehreema Mitha and Ratt Jaga (The Vigil) 199

Conclusion: Revisiting "Unity in Diversity" 215.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739187289

0739187287

OCLC:

871671210