Raktim Pariwar’s Red Lanterns: Dance and Cultural Revolution in Nepal

Abstract

The Nepali communist cultural group Raktim Pariwar (literally “Family of Blood”) stands out among the many such groups in Nepal for their songs and especially for their dances. Active since 1987, their ideology and aesthetics have been strongly influenced by Chinese communism. While this is true of most Nepali communist parties and associated cultural groups, Raktim was the first to seriously engage with the Chinese Cultural Revolution Model Works and incorporate aspects of their choreography into their own dances. Striving to make dance revolutionary and international while grounded in local realities, they aimed to synthesize Chinese styles with Nepali folk styles in order to express and awaken “revolutionary spirit” in performers and audiences. The style they created has since come to characterize Nepali revolutionary dance across political party lines. This article examines three decades of Raktim’s engagement with Cultural Revolution ideologies and artistic products within the broader international leftist emphasis on bodily training as cultivation of revolutionary persons, and shows how dance remains central to their efforts to develop “revolutionary spirit” to this day.