DEAR DEAD DANCER(S)
Essay-Performance

This essay performance addresses figures pivotal to my personal practice of dance: Kelucharan Mahapātra (1926-2004), Rukmiṇi Devi (1904-1986), Chandralekhā (1928-2006), Kapila Vatsyāyan (1928-2020), Astād Deboo (1947-2020) and Sānthā Bhāskar (1939-2022), among others. Auto-ethnographic notes, photographs, documentary film footage and live performance of song and dance, all collectively articulate some complex entanglements inherent to the practice and pedagogy of dances in the Indian sub-continental context across categorical delineations of tradition and modernity.