The Paradox of Authority: the Body of Dance

Abstract

Authority of parampara projected through the medium of the Teacher (Guru) is the cornerstone of traditional dance pedagogy in India. In this paper I illustrate the paradox of the authority of the teacher/ tradition and examine the enabling and disabling effects of this discipline. As a performer and teacher of a traditional dance form, I examine the lived experience of learning a traditional dance form and the creation of a disciplined dancing body which becomes simultaneously, a site for preservation and continuous re-negotiation of tradition. The paper also explores the sub-structures of authority that permeate into the traditional dance class; simultaneously creating rubrics for transmission of knowledge and scaffolding learning while hindering individual agency and expression. Authority (of the teacher and the tradition) and its manifestations become the lens through which traditional dance pedagogy and its resulting narratives are examined.