Christine L. Garlough
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617037320
- eISBN:
- 9781621039242
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037320.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This chapter begins the discussion of how performance activists advocate a political commitment to justice and care through their performance art. The chapter opens with the story of Shyamala Moorty, ...
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This chapter begins the discussion of how performance activists advocate a political commitment to justice and care through their performance art. The chapter opens with the story of Shyamala Moorty, and her 2005 performance of Rise in front of a mainstream and South Asian American community in Madison, Wisconsin. Shyamala begins to tell a story that was not uncommon, especially after the events of 9/11. In fact, incidents of bias, hate crimes, profiling, and discrimination against South Asians showed a record increase. Shyamala’s performance portrays her bicultural ethnicity, her body combining ballet, a traditional Indian dance called Bharatanatyam, and contemporary dance movements. This South Asian American activist’s performance of Rise extends an invitation, then a call for acknowledgement, that begs for more tolerance or simple recognition. Her performance molds together personal testimony and cultural forms in new and inventive ways, in the hope of eliciting a sense of concern, care, and compassion from her audience.Less
This chapter begins the discussion of how performance activists advocate a political commitment to justice and care through their performance art. The chapter opens with the story of Shyamala Moorty, and her 2005 performance of Rise in front of a mainstream and South Asian American community in Madison, Wisconsin. Shyamala begins to tell a story that was not uncommon, especially after the events of 9/11. In fact, incidents of bias, hate crimes, profiling, and discrimination against South Asians showed a record increase. Shyamala’s performance portrays her bicultural ethnicity, her body combining ballet, a traditional Indian dance called Bharatanatyam, and contemporary dance movements. This South Asian American activist’s performance of Rise extends an invitation, then a call for acknowledgement, that begs for more tolerance or simple recognition. Her performance molds together personal testimony and cultural forms in new and inventive ways, in the hope of eliciting a sense of concern, care, and compassion from her audience.
Usha Iyer
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190938734
- eISBN:
- 9780190938772
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190938734.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Chapter 4 focuses on two Bharatanatyam-trained stars in the 1950s and 1960s, Vyjayanthimala and Waheeda Rehman, analyzing changes in film dance alongside the canonization of specific classical and ...
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Chapter 4 focuses on two Bharatanatyam-trained stars in the 1950s and 1960s, Vyjayanthimala and Waheeda Rehman, analyzing changes in film dance alongside the canonization of specific classical and folk dance forms by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. By studying how dance training influences acting repertoires, this chapter calls attention to movement, gesture, and bodily comportment to enhance our understanding of virtuosity and technique, proposing a movement-based analysis of film acting grounded in kinesthetic performance and spectatorship. Rehman and Vyjayanthimala’s most ambitious production numbers speak to their own performative desires as trained dancers. Films featuring these A-list actresses as dancing protagonists evince a generic tendency, described here as the “melodrama of dance reform,” which combines the dance spectacular with the “social problem” film, producing in the process cinematic figurations riven with anxieties and aspirations around female sexuality, bodily movement, and economic independence.Less
Chapter 4 focuses on two Bharatanatyam-trained stars in the 1950s and 1960s, Vyjayanthimala and Waheeda Rehman, analyzing changes in film dance alongside the canonization of specific classical and folk dance forms by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. By studying how dance training influences acting repertoires, this chapter calls attention to movement, gesture, and bodily comportment to enhance our understanding of virtuosity and technique, proposing a movement-based analysis of film acting grounded in kinesthetic performance and spectatorship. Rehman and Vyjayanthimala’s most ambitious production numbers speak to their own performative desires as trained dancers. Films featuring these A-list actresses as dancing protagonists evince a generic tendency, described here as the “melodrama of dance reform,” which combines the dance spectacular with the “social problem” film, producing in the process cinematic figurations riven with anxieties and aspirations around female sexuality, bodily movement, and economic independence.
