BHARATANATYAM: CONTINUITY, CONFORMITY AND CHANGE (PART 2 of 2)

தமிழ் பாரம்பரியம்
(Tamil Heritage)
invite you and your friends to a lecture on
BHARATANATYAM: CONTINUITY, CONFORMITY AND CHANGE (PART 2 of 2 - Final Part)
by
SWARNAMALYA
at 5.30pm on Saturday, 7th, May, 2011
at Vinobha Hall, Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya, T Nagar.

Abstract:

The history of Bharatanatyam is an engaging narrative of the configuration and reconfiguration of this art from multiple sources. The historiography of what we call Bharatanatyam includes everything from myths, puranic lore, legends, treatises, temple sculptures and epigraphs, cultural artefacts, role of kings and patrons, the hereditary community dancers and courtesans, the colonial and post-colonial documentations, western traveller’s accounts and European enlightenment, also personal journeys and journals of the high caste “elite” and institutionalisation and globalisation of this art.
In an attempt to essay this vast historical journey of Bharatanatyam I intend to trace it, using the canvas of texts and traditions, practices and politics that has always shrouded its historicization. It will be a two-part lecture. The first part will analyse texts that have allowed us to reconstruct and recognise the various traditions of Bharatanatyam. The second part of the lecture will trace the practice patterns historically and finally in the segment “politics” we will travel through the colonial and post colonial eras trying to find the missing links that piece together the recent history of Bharatanatyam and its claim to fame.
Speaker Profile:
Swarnamalya Ganesh is a professional classical Bharatanatyam dancer with over 25 years of learning and experience. She is a senior disciple of Kalaimamani K.J.Sarasa who is an exponent guru from the hereditary dancing family. Apart from training with some more of the devadasi gurus and nattuvanars she is also involved in documenting their repertoire. She is a trained classical singer. She holds a masters degree in Bharatanatyam from the University of Madras and is currently a Ph.D scholar in dance and a visiting faculty for the Department of Indian music, University of Madras.
She travels extensively on concert tours both within India and outside. She has performed in several prestigious dance festivals around the world. She has been involved in dance history research and presents lecture demonstrations and writes papers for various forums. She is a member of the Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) U.K. Ranga Mandira was started by her ten years ago with the guidance of her mentor T.S.Parthasarathy (Past secretary Music Academy and fellow Sangeet Natak Akademi) which functions on two levels; one as a trust which promotes research and production of various dance and musical works, another as a centre for dance and music teaching.


RSVP:
A. Annamalai: Gandhi Study Centre - gandhicentre@gmail.com; 94441-83198
Badri Seshadri: Kizhakku-p-padippakam - badri@nhm.in; 98840-66566
TK Ramachandran, IAS - tkramachandranias@hotmail.com; 99406-41144
S. Kannan: Bank of Baroda - 2498 5836
S. Swaminathan: Marg Constructions - sswami99@gmail.com; 2467 1501
R. Gopu, writergopu@yahoo.com, 98417-24641
T. Sivasubramanian, siva.durasoft@gmail.com, 98842-94494