Towards a British Natyam

Creating a British Classical Indian Dance Tradition

Magdalen Gorringe (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

368 Seiten

2025
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-1-80539-849-3 (ISBN)

Infos

The story of the emerging professionalization of classical Indian dance forms in Britain is wrought with contradictions. Though becoming increasingly popular within mainstream culture, the forms lack the clear routes to vocational training so essential for creating a dance career in the traditional sense. Towards a British Natyam uses this lens to analyze the cultural, social, and political frameworks that make a profession possible within the arts. Innovatively drawing on the work of decolonial theorists and the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, Gorringe illuminates the transformative potential of a classical Indian dance profession to decenter white supremacist modes of knowledge formation and recenter pluriversality.

Autor

Magdalen Gorringe is a dancer, arts manager, writer, and independent researcher. She grew up in India, where she trained in bharatanatyam, before going on to acquire a B.A. in Theology and Religious Studies from Cambridge University and a MPhil in Classical Indian Religions from Oxford University. She subsequently spent over twenty-five years working as a bharatanatyam dancer in Britain, employed variously as a performer, teacher, workshop leader, and producer. A recipient of a Vice-Chancellor's scholarship from the University of Roehampton, she gained her doctorate in 2021 with a thesis on classical Indian dance forms in Britain.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements



Introduction: Flourishing or Fragile? The Contradictory Context of Classical Indian Dance Forms in Britain



Chapter 1. Context: The BBC Young Dancer and the Professionalisation of South Asian Dance in Britain: A Snapshot of the Sector and Its Place within British Dance

Chapter 2. Professionalism :Of Work, Love and Money: Living to Dance – or Dancing to Live? What It Means to Be a ‘Professional’ Classical Indian Dance Artist in Britain

Chapter 3. Learning: Migration, Identity, and Making Professional Dancers

Chapter 4. Livelihood, Learning, Embodiment: ‘Technical Habitus’, Classical Indian Dance Forms and the Limits of the ‘Versatile Dancer’

Chapter 5. Legitimacy: Professionalising Classical Indian Dance in Britain and Entering the ‘National Cultural Canon’



Conclusion: Part of the ‘British DNA’?



Appendix I: List of Judges and Mentors for the BBC Young Dancer

Appendix II: Table of South Asian Dance Tuition in British HE Institutions

Appendix III: Table of Members of the South Asian Dance Alliance

Appendix IV: Project Interlocutors



Bibliography

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.2.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Dance and Performance Studies
• Verlagsort: Oxford
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 152 x 229 mm
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Tanzen / Tanzsport
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• ISBN-10: 1-80539-849-0 / 1805398490
• ISBN-13: 978-1-80539-849-3 / 9781805398493
• Zustand: Neuware