Forms of cultural violence live at the heart of the reimagined form of Bharatanatyam as is practised today. On the one hand, the original custodians of the form β Sudra women from former courtesan communities β are systemically denied access to the elite socio-cultural spaces now occupied by the dance. The fact that this is not an issue that is acknowledged within the Bharatanatyam community illustrates just how removed the Indian dance fraternity is from conversations around social justice and reparations.
A deeper engagement with history shows that mimicry of the lower caste stigmatised dancing identity is a central aspect of the artistic works of celebrated and applauded artists in the contemporary history of both Indian and white American dance. The cycles of these appropriative acts have happened over and over again, and continue well into our present.
These performances hovered between celebration or homage on the one hand and inadvertently, especially for us as modern viewers, parody. There is also the question of the voyeuristic and hyper-sexualised nature of such representations. In the case of Orientalist performers like St Denis, the questions of ownership and appropriation are quite clear. All of these courtesan communities were subject to intense stigma and oppression.
These claims are problematic as they do not acknowledge the oppressive realities of concubinage that was part of the lives of these women. I want to clarify that caste cannot be reduced to just tracing bloodlines; it is fundamentally about the discriminatory lived experiences one is subjected to on account of their birth.
.jpg/230px-Ruth_St_Denis_in_Egypta_1910_(cropped).jpg "Teen girls in Saint-Denis")
Women from these courtesan backgrounds, then and now, are subject to unique kinds of oppressive and discriminatory experiences. The Sudra location of the original performers of Bharatanatyam, and its public recognition and display, is thus an undeniable truth.
