CHENNAI: The Ranga Mandira Academy of World Dance/Performance & Indic Studies in collaboration with Madras Literary Society will present the T S Parthasarathy memorial lecture 2018 and a workshop. This year’s guest lecture will be delivered by Pallabi Chakravorty, a renowned Kathak dancer and anthropologist who will deliver a lecture on ‘Whose feminism? Indian dance history through the tawaif.’
She is currently a faculty at the Swarthmore College, USA. “TS Parthasarathy is a veteran musicologist, polyglot, critic and a scholar. He has been the mentor of many dancers including me. We started this lecture series in his name for the past three years. However, the dance seminar has been going on for eight years now. Every year we pick one eminent scholar or performer and request them to deliver a lecture on the topic of their choice,” said Swarnamalya Ganesh, dancer and founder of Ranga Mandira Academy.
The lecture will focus on the history and evolution of Kathak. The speaker will talk about the idea of feminism through courtesan kathak dancers. “The tawaif is also the precursor of modern day ‘item girl.’ Despite their very different socio-cultural contexts, the tawaif and item girl share a sexuality, artistry and agency that are expressed through their performance. I conclude with the study of new genres of ‘item numbers’ and ‘dance reality shows’ to shed light on the current debates on sexuality, respectability, labour, justice and authority surrounding the Indian dance girl,” said Chakravorty.
A workshop on choreography and improvisation using thumri from courtly traditions has also been scheduled. “We will explore how the rhythmic structures of Kathak (bol/tukra) can be transformed into spatial geometries. We will work with images derived from the genres of ghazal and thumri. The idea of tracing the history of feminism through dance is a topic for enthusiasts, art and gender studies students. Kathak is not something we commonly see in Chennai. We wanted to break that mould,” said Swarnamalya.
Details
On October 20 at Madras Literary Society. Lecture from 10 am to 12 pm and workshop from 2 pm to 5 pm.
Registration fee : `500
Contact: rma@rangamandira.com