What does a collaborative process of an artistic creation entail? How does the individual components of text, music, and dance weave in a solo choreography? This article brings together the voices of the dancer (Sarkar), the choreographer (Dandavate), and the music composer (Mirle) who has also sung and is the curator of the project called Nachi Meera. This project has commissioned multiple artists working in different dance techniques to present Abhinaya-esque (meaning expressive dance works) expositions on songs by the renowned historical saint-poet Mirabai. Sarkar, Dandavate, and Mirle reflect upon their collaborative journeys in this reflective essay where the process of creating an Abhinaya is theorized as research. The dance piece itself stands by itself as a scholarly product with historical, performative, and artistic research methodologies informing the process. This article documents the collaborative process borrowing from scholar Robin Nelson’s Practice-as-Research (PaR) methodology and argues how the artistic product weaves verbal, kinesthetic, and aural communication in an iterative process of ‘doing-reflecting-reading-articulating-doing” (Nelson 32). Movement layers the intricacies of South Asian aesthetics or the Rasa theory that governs the mood of execution by the dancer. Improvisation through choreography supplements Mirabai’s lyrics and Mirle’s musical composition.

Bharathanatyam is practiced for the purpose of experiencing aesthetic pleasure by the actor, dancer and spectator (Rao, 1997). According to ancient treatises such as the Natya Sastra, dancing should be experiential, sensorial and pleasurable. When dance is transmitted, do these core values of the practice get lost? How can we heighten sensorial ranges through the facilitation of a shift in the transmission and dissemination of learning the component Rasa (emotion)? Some of the problems present in the current landscape of learning Bharathantayam is problematic due to the codification of the traditional form and the authoritarian style rooted in its pedagogy. This has left many students feeling incompetent and as a consequence, made the form unattainable. The purpose of my intervention is to make the learning of Sringara Rasa (the emotion of love) a component in the Bharathanatyam curriculum, accessible to all levels of dancers. I hope to achieve this through a sequential model that interrogates cognitive activities present in the engagement of a role or character performing the emotion. My intervention aims at reexamining the theory and practice of Padams (poetic texts) rooted in the Sringara Rasa (emotion of love) and bridging the gaps in learning this component. When dancers introspect, it allows them to access the sensorial dimension of Bharathanatyam.

This project was set out to curate dance videos of select vacanas, meaning, religious free verses in Kannada, of Akka Mahadevi, a twelfth century poet from Karnataka, India. Vacanas are religious lyrics in free verse which mean ‘a saying’ or ‘a thing said’. By translating Akka’s vacanas to music and dance the project aimed to transport the essence of her poetry to the viewer. The symbols, images and metaphors used by the poet from discursive fields such as Bhakthi movement (a spiritual reform movement in India), Vedas, Upanishads, Yoga and feminism were re-interpreted through traditional music and dance styles recognized as classical arts by the national government, by a process of, what I theorize, as inter-semiotic transformation. Inter-semiotic transformation is the reinterpretation of symbols from one semiotic system, say, literature into others like music, dance, film or theatre. This paper analyses strategies of bringing poetry into the realm of aesthetic experience of viewers through the performing arts.

With the emergence of the pandemic, the world adapted virtually; dance education and performance were no exception. Particularly, Indian classical dance (ICD) education and practice garnered mixed reactions due to the deviations from the intimate personified practices which are inherent in the traditional ICD system. Therefore, certain changes in the system became mandatory. With reference to the ideal tenets of arts pedagogy as mentioned in the ancient performing arts treatise Natyashastra, this paper provides specific significant methodologies which can benefit the knowledge exchange process in ICD especially in the online environment. Derived from the training in the sciences, this paper is an attempt to inform the virtual ICD scenario regarding complementation of and improvements in the traditional ways of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. These ways will appreciably enrich the desired purposes of the “felt” and “embodied” which may have been lost with the shift to the virtual scenario.

An educational international project, initiated by a Romanian organisation, comprising folk dances from around the world, has challenged me to go deeper into understanding one of the most popular dance forms of Western Odisha, Dalkhai. Traditionally a religion-based folk dance connected to the agrarian culture of local Adivasi communities, it has been gradually developed into a cultural pattern of Odisha, Eastern India. Considering folklore as intangible cultural heritage of humanity, according to UNESCO definition, I explore the expression of this ritual-dance, in connection to the Adivasi culture, as Dalkhai is considered the goddess of fertility, initially worshipped by the tribal people/Adivasi like Mirdha, Kondha, Kuda, Gond, Binjhal, etc., but also in its recent metamorphosis into a proscenium representation. The Dalkhai dance is becoming visible and recognised at state, national and even international form of dance, while in the Adivasis communities it is noted that the ritual becomes less and less performed. Consulting the UNESCO definitions and documents on Intangible Cultural Heritage is useful for understanding how to approach a choric ritual, involving a tradition, music and dance, enhancing the importance of safeguarding cultural diversity while confronting cultural globalization. Its approach, in accordance with ‘universal cultural rights’, emancipatory politics concerning world culture and multiculturalism, opposes the disappearances and destruction of local traditions, indigenous practices. Heritage concerns the whole community, conferring an identity feeling, and supporting the transmission to the next generations, sustainable development, often involving economic stakes, becoming essential for developing the territories (Chevalier, 2000).

Building on recent interest in the convergence of arts and sciences, we propose specific areas of intersection between the disciplines of Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance, and neuroscience. We present personal reflections by practitioners of both disciplines and propose that Bharatanatyam can be used to understand and explain brain functioning and that neuroscience can help analyze the dancing Bharatanatyam brain. We explore conceptual areas of convergence between the two fields as well as specific points of connection using language acquisition, rhythm, music, and cognition as examples. We conjecture that Bharatanatyam training and practice support long-term neuronal plasticity in various parts of the brain, including but not limited to the hippocampus, motor, premotor cortex, and the cerebellum. The beginning of the study of the intersection between these disciplines will pave the way for additional allied fields of rich thinking, exploration and potentially, therapy.

The paper focuses on the creation of different forms of social capital in the context of CFM (Community Management of Forests) in tribal and non-tribal communities in Odisha using case study method. What is found is that CFM has made a substantial contribution to the building of social capital. On the front of bonding, bridging capital, close similarities are observed between the tribal and non-tribal villages. The extent of linking capital is slightly higher in tribal villages than non-tribal villages.

The paper sheds light on the socio-cultural and political identity of the adivasis in relationship to their king(s), in the past as well as nowadays. Based on long time field observations (Nayak, 1972-2005), enforced by theoretical remarks and viewpoints, the research emphasizes that the adivasis in the former “Jungle Kingdoms” of Odisha organize community-based rituals and festivals as politically more organized groups than mere social groups, lineage groups or clan groups with the ultimate purpose of upholding and renewing legitimacy over their land and territory. The use of certain royal symbols and insignia in ritual rites makes explicit how the authority of the king assumes prime- most importance from the point of view of their identity and status as legitimate citizens or, at least as state-owned denizens. The paper intends to discuss these kingly religious rites in their varied manifestations drawing examples from tribal people inhabiting Odisha as a regional variation of the middle Indian tribes.