Dance and the Dancer Performance and Pedagogy in Kolkata

Abstract

In this thesis, I am trying to look at dancers, practices of dance pedagogy, and performances in the city of Kolkata since 1990 economic reforms. I aim to do this by perceiving dance as a synecdoche of the city. Studying through the prism of dance practices gives one a way of understanding the transformations in urban culture three decades after globalisation. This leads to constructing a triad relationship between the city, dance and identity which can be used to map a shift in the culture of the city of Kolkata by understanding the changes in dance pedagogy and performances since new economic reforms. Most of my dancer respondents are contributing towards deconstructing and reconstructing the culture of the city by dancing a difference. They are co-constructing the changing culture of the city, which is closely linked to economic opportunities and, in turn are also constructing their own identities through their dance practices and performances. Such practices and performances represent the interaction of myriad dance forms, styles and pedagogies. This is seen in various other cultural dimensions of urban life, such as culinary cultures offering different cuisines in restaurants across the city and practices of music and theatre, where urban cultures, economies and identities conjoin to transform cultural landscapes of the city. newlineWhile discussing dance practices in the city of Kolkata since liberalization of the economy, I ponder upon the relationship that gets established between people who are dwelling in the city and the city that they are constructing and re-constructing through their experience of it as a lived place and space. I conceive of practices of dance as constantly mediating between lived experiences in the city, urban spaces and associated cultural memories and meanings, and urban cultures. I follow Appadurai s (1996) notion of the scape by which he meant a space which is fluid, representing disjunctive and hybrid nature of culture, economy and media in a global modern world which is always un