Sitting across from each other at the famous NICK’S TACOS, my friends and I began to ask , HOW CAN WE IMAGINE BHARATANATYAM as having space for discussion and debate on POLITICS, CLASS, CASTE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY?
Chennai to pursue a career as a Bharantanatyam soloist, working intimately with many colleagues and choreographers, but focusing largely on my individual practice. Chennai seemed like the place to be, laden with historical remnants of Indian dance and music history. During the city’s famous “December Performance Season,” ensemble and solo artists of various genres come together in large performance auditoriums. But noth- ing enraptured me more than the Bharatanatyam soloists. During solo concerts, dancers perform up to seven compositions with varied themes and almost no breaks, for as long as an hour and a half. Some works of choreography are physically dynamic with catchy rhythmic sequences, while others require dancers to be more solitary using abhinaya , an expressive tech- nique similar to miming. I rehearsed several hours a day and, after so much physical and emotional exer- tion, some performances would leave me with splitting headaches. Still, I embraced the solo Bharatanatyam dance as a career trajectory, covering up all evidence of effort—panting, sweat, pain—like all the dancers I admired. I didn’t think about dancing as labor, instead visualizing myself moving in glittering costumes for a rapt audience, pounding my feet on shiny wooden stages. Several years later, when I moved back to the United States to be with my partner, I maintained the goal of being a soloist, but didn’t understand how to be a Bharatanatyam dancer here. While it has a vast audience
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