Training in the Homeland: Negotiating Artistic Travel in the Transnational Field of Indian Classical Dance

Abstract

As South Asian arts—especially Indian classical dance—gain increasing prominence in transnational settings, travel to India for artistic training has become a major milestone for both amateurs and aspiring professionals. The global networks that are thus instantiated enable diasporic members to return to the ‘homeland’ of their art forms and communities, as well as non-diasporic enthusiasts—many of whom first encounter South Asian arts in the diaspora—the opportunity to learn their chosen art in its ‘original’ context. In this paper, I analyse this global network of artists to study the cross-cultural interactions that are made possible as a result. Some of the questions to be addressed include: How does artistic training in India serve to provide other forms of cultural education for diasporic and non-diasporic artists? How does the contemporary transnational practice of Indian classical dance sustain and/or produce particular identities relating to nation-culture, race and ethnicity? What is the relationship between dance practices in India and constructions of multicultural identity abroad? Drawing on ethnographic and historical research on the performance of Indian classical dance in the diasporic and multicultural context, this paper is also informed by my extensive experience as a diasporic Indian classical (Odissi) dancer in Canada. As travel to India for training becomes easier for diasporic and non-diasporic dancers, as well as something that is to be expected to evidence their commitment and proficiency, the question arises as to whether or not the ways in which South Asian arts are being perceived in India and abroad are changing. As I demonstrate, the fact that these national arts are regarded as rooted in India as their land of origin serves to cement earlier nationalist constructs even as these dance practices are shaped by contemporary transnational politics of multiculturalism and racial formation.