Chhapaka: Toward Online Embodiment and Discursive Shifts in Indian Dance

Abstract

ABSTRACT The pandemic has forced Indian dance communities to pivot to online mediums. I investigate pandemic-induced shifts in two ways. I theorize through Chhapaka (a sling-shot movement involving oppositions of footwork and torso articulations) of my dancing Odissi (an eastern Indian traditional form) body, providing an embodied metaphor of transformations occurring in Indian dance through online media. I also investigate how Darshan (seeing), a concept important to traditional Indian dance, becomes an example of discursive shifts occurring in Indian dance. I overview digital content—choreography accompanied by verbal sharing of processes, life-styles, and concerns by Odissi practitioners—alongside my web-based pedagogical approaches instituted in higher education. I argue that the field of Indian esthetics, having been forced to grapple with loss of opportunity as well as inherent inequities, could potentially experience a discursive shift in identity. Further, I maintain that building online communities of practice expands dance studies in academia.