Indian Dance Criticism as Decolonial Post-Performance Performative

Abstract

This paper examines dance reviews of transnational performances of Indian male dancers Uday Shankar and Ram Gopal from the 1930s to the 1950s. Throughout, this research seeks to contribute to methods for decolonizing dance criticism by advocating for embodied spectatorship as well as evaluation that challenges hegemony by validating classical traditions and innovative artistry. Western and Indian critics savored the rasa, meaning the flavor of the performances, and criticism reactivated the felt or sensorial experience in what I term post-performance performative. In India, anti-Orientalist criticism reclaimed traditions that critics in Europe and the United States had dismissed as irrational and unprogressive.

Keywords:

• Indian dance criticism
• decolonial spectatorship
• rasaic spectatorship
• decolonial nationalism

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Rebecca Rossen for her generous supervision and guidance.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A Correspondent, “Mr. Uday Shankar: Beginning of Indian Tour,” Statesman (Calcutta), February 20, 1935, 6.

2 Bharatamuni, “Sentiments,” in Natyasastra, trans. Pushpendra Kumar (New Delhi: New Bharatiya Book Corporation, 2010), 1:302-05; Pappu Venugopala Rao, “Natyasastra and Rasa Theory” (lecture, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India, August 10, 2011).

3 Rao, “Natyasastra and Rasa Theory;” Bharatamuni, “Sentiments,” 1:302.

4 Kapila Vatsyayan, Indian Classical Dance (New Delhi: Publications Division, Government of India, 1974), 16-19; Pappu Venugopala Rao, “Natyasastra Workshop” (workshop, Saptaparni, Hyderabad, India, February 5-10, 2010); Bharatamuni, “Sentiments,” 1:286-305.

5 Adya Rangacharya, Introduction to Bharata’s Nātyasāstra (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1966), 76-81; Vasanta Vedam, A Handbook on Nātya Sāstra (Bangalore: Vasanta Vedam, 2003), 125-37; Kalpana Ram, “Dancing the Past Into Life: The Rasa, Nrtta and Rāga of Immigrant Existence,” The Australian Journal of Anthropology 11, no. 3 (2000): 266–69; Kalpana Ram, “Being ‘rasikas’: The Affective Pleasures of Music and Dance Spectatorship and Nationhood in Indian Middle-Class Modernity,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 17 (2011): S161–64; Vatsyayan, Indian Classical Dance, 16-19; Bharatamuni, “Sentiments,” 1:302-05.

6 “Abhinavagupta’s Philosophy of Rasa,” eGyanKosh-Digital Library, Unit 4, IGNOU The People’s University, 1-4, accessed May 21, 2021, https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/35511/1/Unit-4.pdf.

7 “Abhinavagupta’s Philosophy of Rasa,” IGNOU, 4-5; Rao, “Natyasastra Workshop.”

8 Kapila Vatsyayan, The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts (New Delhi: Roli Books International, 1983), 8, 41-43, 80-81.

9 Kapila Vatsyayan, Classical Indian Dance in Literature and the Arts (New Delhi: Sangeet Natak Akademi, 1968), 6-9; Kapila Vatsyayan, “The Natyashastra: Explicit and Implicit,” in The Natyasastra and the Body in Performance: Essays on Indian Theories of Dance and Drama, ed. Sreenath Nair (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, 2015), 19-43.

10 Susan L. Schwartz, Rasa: Performing the Divine in India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, 2008).

11 Ibid., 9.

12 Richard Schechner, “Rasaesthetics,” TDR: The Drama Review 45, no. 3 (Autumn 2001): 35, 46.

13 David Mason, “Rasa, ‘Rasaesthetics’ and Dramatic Theory as Performance Packaging,” Theatre Research International 31, no. 1 (2006): 70-74.

14 Ibid., 74.

15 Ibid., 76 (emphasis original).

16 Henry Bidou, “La Musique–Les Danses de Ram Gopal [The Music–Ram Gopal’s Dances],” Feuilleton du Temps (Paris), August 26, 1939.

17 V. Raghavan, Splendours of Indian Dance: Forms-Theory-Practice (Chennai: Dr. V. Raghavan Center for Performing Arts, 2004), 162-63.

18 Claudia Cassidy, “Shan-Kar, the Finnish Chorus, Raphael […],” Journal of Commerce, January 24, 1938.

19 Royona Mitra, “Decolonizing Immersion: Translation, Spectatorship, Rasa Theory and Contemporary British Dance,” Performance Research 21, no. 5 (2016): 89.

20 Ibid., 89-90.

21 K.S, “Dance Recital at The Globe: Pleasing Exhibition by Ram Gopal Troupe,” Statesman (Calcutta), December 17, 1941, 8.

22 T.S. Satyan, “Ambassador of Dance,” Deccan Herald, Magazine Section (Bangalore), April 11, 1949, 2.

23 Edna B. Lawson, “Gopal, East Indian Dancer, Holds Audience Spellbound,” Honolulu Advertiser, January 20, 1938, 2.

24 John Martin, “The Dance: Summer […],” New York Times, June 6, 1954, 4; New York Herald Tribune, August 8, 1954.

25 “Ram Gopal Documentary,” SADAA, Birmingham, July 11, 2016, YouTube video, 25:45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC32jtTVv9o.

26 “Aleksander Janta Présente Ram Gopal: Danseur de Temple Hindou [Aleksander Janta Presents Ram Gopal: Hindu Temple Dancer],” French brochure of Gopal, Collection of Carl Van Vechten.

27 New York Herald Tribune, August 8, 1954.

28 John Martin, “The Dance: Hindu Art for the Western World,” New York Times, January 1, 1933, 2.

29 John Martin, The Modern Dance (New York: A.S Barnes and Company, 1933), 11-15.

30 Martin, “Hindu Art,” New York Times, January 1, 1933, 2.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid.

33 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (1978; repr., UK: Penguin Random House, 2003), 3.

34 Ibid., 127.

35 Martin, “Hindu Art,” New York Times, January 1, 1933, 2.

36 Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, “Uday Shankar’s Indian Dancing,” Magazine of Art, October 1937, 611-13.

37 Martin, The Modern Dance, 13-14.

38 Coomaraswamy, “Uday Shankar’s,” Magazine of Art, 611 (emphasis original).

39 Ruth K. Abrahams, “The Life and Art of Uday Shankar,” (PhD diss., New York University, 1986), microfilm, 62-64; Mohan Khokar, His Dance, His Life: A Portrait of Uday Shankar (New Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1983), 42.

40 Doris Hering, “The Season in Review: Uday Shankar and Company,” Dance Magazine 24, no. 3 (March 1950): 14, 38.

41 Ibid., 14.

42 Ibid.

43 Edouard Schneider, “Les Magnifiques Danses Hindoues du Célèbre Artiste Uday Shan-Kar [Magnificent Hindu Dances by the Celebrated Uday Shan-Kar],” Le Miroir du Monde, 21-22.

44 Ibid.

45 “Uday Shankar, Interpreter of Hindu Temple Dances, […],” Constitution (Atlanta), January 7, 1934, 13.

46 John K. Sherman, “The Dance: Shan-Kar and Hindu Group Appear at the ‘Met’,” Minneapolis Star, February 5, 1934, 11.

47 Saskia C. Kersenboom, “The Traditional Repertoire of the Tiruttani Temple Dancers,” in Bharatanatyam: A Reader, ed. Davesh Soneji (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010), 54-63; Davesh Soneji, Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 178-80.

48 Kersenboom, “The Traditional Repertoire,” 57; Lakshmi Vishwanathan, Women of Pride: The Devadasi Heritage (New Delhi: Lotus Collection, Roli Books Pvt. Ltd., 2008), 60-64; Avanthi Meduri, “Bharatha Natyam—What Are You?” Asian Theatre Journal 5, no. 1 (Spring 1988): 4.

49 Kersenboom, “The Traditional Repertoire,” 54-63; Vishwanathan, Women of Pride, 60-64.

50 Abrahams, “The Life and Art of Uday Shankar,” 42, 97-101, 142; Khokar, His Dance, His Life, 25-27, 79-83.

51 “A Hindoo Troupe,” Boston Daily Globe, December 2, 1880, 2; Priya Srinivasan, Sweating Saris: Indian Dance as Transnational Labor (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011), 47-57.

52 Khokar, His Dance, His Life, 25-30, 49-56; Abrahams, “The Life and Art of Uday Shankar,” 33-37, 44-46, 105-08.

53 John Martin, “The Dance: […],” New York Times, December 25, 1932, 10X.

54 “Sinuous Sidelight (1931),” British Pathe, video, March 23, 1931, 1:24, https://www.britishpathe.com/video/sinuous-sidelight; “Radha and Krishna (1932),” British Pathe, video, May 19, 1932, 1:05, https://www.britishpathe.com/video/radha-and-krishna/query/Dance+of+India.

55 J.S, “Hindu Dancers: Uday Shan-Kar at the Comedy Theatre,” Manchester Guardian (London), April 21, 1934, 11.

56 Lawson, “Gopal, East Indian Dancer,” Honolulu Advertiser, January 20, 1938, 2; John Martin, “Ram Gopal in Debut Tonight at Forty-Sixth Street Theatre,” New York Times, May 1, 1938, 8X.

57 Lawson, “Gopal, East Indian Dancer,” Honolulu Advertiser, January 20, 1938, 2; Annabel Damon, “Gopal Offers Indian Dances,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 20, 1938, 17; E.B.L. “Hindu Dancer,” Honolulu Advertiser, February 6, 1938, 13; “Indian Dancer will Give First American Recital,” Honolulu Advertiser, January 19, 1938, 4; “Ram Gopal,” Honolulu Advertiser, January 23, 1938, 14; “Ram Gopal will Give Last Performance,” Honolulu Advertiser, January 30, 1938, 14; “Ram Gopal will Dance at Wilshire-Ebell,” Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1938, 14; “Hindu Artist Booked at Ebell Theater,” Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1938, 5.

58 “Indian Dancer to Appear Here,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 12, 1938, 7.

59 “Indian Temple Dancer in Dance Recital,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 15, 1938, 8.

60 Ram Gopal, Rhythm in the Heavens: An Autobiography (London: Secker and Warburg, 1957), 37-38.

61 Ibid., 20-38, 52.

62 Ibid., 54-55.

63 Vincent Canzoneri, “Ram Gopal, Dancer from India, Gives Brilliant Recital,” Japan Times and Mail (Tokyo), November 28, 1937, 4; “Ram Gopal will Give Last Performance,” Honolulu Advertiser, January 30, 1938, 14; “Ram Gopal,” Honolulu Advertiser, January 23, 1938, 14; E.B.L. “Hindu Dancer,” Honolulu Advertiser, February 6, 1938, 13.

64 Canzoneri, “Ram Gopal,” Japan Times and Mail, November 28, 1937, 4; E.B.L, “Hindu Dancer,” Honolulu Advertiser, February 6, 1938, 13.

65 Gopal, Rhythm in the Heavens, 42.

66 Ibid., 38.

67 Ibid., 34-35.

68 Mohan Khokar, “Western Interest in, and its Impact on, Indian Dance,” Bulletin of the Institute of Traditional Cultures (1961): 207-08.

69 Joan L. Erdman, “Performance as Translation: Uday Shankar in the West,” TDR: The Drama Review 31, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 77-78, 86; Joan L. Erdman, “Towards Authenticity: Uday Shankar’s First Company of Hindu Dancers and Musicians,” in Dance of India (1998): 80, 94-95; Joan L. Erdman, “Performance as Translation II: Shankar, the Europeans, and the Oriental Dance,” Institute for Culture and Consciousness: Occasional Papers 1, no. 1 (1993): 42-47.

70 Ann David, “Ram Gopal: A Challenge to Orientalism?” Attendance, the Dance Annual of India (2001): 39; Ann David, “Part II: Ram Gopal: The Post-War Years,” Attendance, the Dance Annual of India (2001): 46-53.

71 Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and ‘The Mystic East’ (Taylor &Francis e-Library, 2001), 82, https://www.ecirtam.net/autoblogs/autoblogs/frglobalvoicesonlineorg_0e319138ab63237c2d2aeff84b4cb506d936eab8/media/a3fd0e09.-and-religion-post-colonial-theory-india-and-the-mystic-east.pdf.

72 King, Orientalism and Religion, 89-90; Partha Chatterjee, “History and the Nationalization of Hinduism,” Social Research 59, no.1 (Spring 1992): 111-13, 147-49; Marianne Keppens, and Esther Bloch, “Introduction: Rethinking Religion in India,” in Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism, eds. Esther Bloch, Marianne Keppens, and Rajaram Hegde (New York: Routledge, 2009), 1-21.

73 Romila Thapar, “Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity,” Modern Asian Studies 23, no. 2 (1989): 229.

74 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990), 195-200.

75 K.V. Ramachandran [Ganadasa], “Uday Shankar,” Triveni: Journal of Indian Renaissance 6, no. 1 (July–August 1933): 17, 19-20.

76 Meduri, “Bharatha Natyam,” 1, 6-9; Davesh Soneji, “Introduction: Critical Steps, Thinking Through Bharatanatyam in the Twenty-first Century,” in Soneji, Bharatanatyam, xi-li; Indira Viswanathan Peterson and Davesh Soneji, introduction to Performing Pasts: Reinventing the Arts in Modern South India, eds. Indira Viswanathan Peterson and Davesh Soneji (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 17-40; Matthew Harp Allen, “Rewriting the Script for South Indian Dance,” in Soneji, Bharatanatyam, 205-14; Soneji, Unfinished Gestures, 223-25.

77 Janet O’Shea, Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage: At Home in the World (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, 2009), 72-73.

78 G.K Seshagiri [G.K.S.], “Art and Taste,” Sound and Shadow 2, no. 8 (August 1933): 52-54, 61; G.K Seshagiri [G.K.S.], “Uday Shankar Again,” Sound and Shadow 2, no. 10 (October 1933): 47-50; V. Raghavan [Bhava Raga Tala], “Seen on Stage: Uday Shankar in Madras,” Sound and Shadow 2, no. 8 (August 1933): 62-63.

79 Seshagiri “Art and Taste,” 53-54, 61.

80 Ibid., 54.

81 Seshagiri, “Art and Taste,” 53-54; Raghavan, “Seen on Stage: Uday,” 63.

82 Soneji, Unfinished Gestures, 4-14, 223-25; Davesh Soneji, “Memory and the Recovery of Identity: Living Histories and the Kalavantulu of Coastal Andhra Pradesh,” in Peterson and Soneji, Performing Pasts, 283-312; Hari Krishnan, “Inscribing Practice: Reconfigurations and Textualizations of Devadasi Repertoire in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-century South India,” in Soneji, Bharatanatyam, 69-86.

83 K. Ramakotiswara Rao, “The Triple Stream: Uday Shankar,” Triveni: Journal of Indian Renaissance 6, no. 3 (December 1933).

84 John Martin, “The Dance: Art of India: Shan-Kar Criticized as Departing […],” New York Times, February 4, 1934, 8X.

85 Thomas B. Sherman, “Hindu Dances Given in Recital at Odeon,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 7, 1934, 3B.

86 Mary F. Watkins, “Five Facets of the Dance,” Theatre Arts Monthly 18, no. 2 (February 1934): 136.

87 K.V. Ramachandran, “Our Forum: Uday Shankar,” Triveni: Journal of Indian Renaissance, March 1935; “Uday Shankar’s Dances: Last Evening’s Performance,” Hindu (Madras), March 26, 1935, 11.

88 A Pundit, “An Appreciation: Uday Shankar’s Dances: Last Evening’s Performance,” Hindu (Madras), March 26, 1935, 11.

89 Partha Chatterjee, “Nationalism as a Problem in the History of Political Ideas,” in Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse (London: Zed Books, 1993), 4, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.02425.

90 Ibid., 5.

91 “Classical Hindu Dance: Uday Shankar’s Art,” Statesman (Calcutta), March 18, 1935, 4.

92 Ibid.

93 “Indian Dancing at its Best,” Statesman (Calcutta), September 1, 1935, 6.

94 Khokar, His Dance, His Life, 96-101; Abrahams “The Life and Art of Uday Shankar,” 218-22.

95 “Uday Shan-Kar’s Ballet: Full of Verve and Vigour [sic],” Times of India (Bombay), December 15, 1941, 9; “Uday Shankar,” Hindustan Times (Delhi), December 19, 1943, 4.

96 “Uday Shankar at Regal,” Hindustan Times (Delhi), December 18, 1943, 6.

97 “Uday Shankar,” Hindustan Times, December 19, 1943, 4.

98 Gopal, Rhythm in the Heavens, 52-53.

99 “Indian Dancing Display: Fine Performance by Ram Gopal,” Times of India (Bombay), January 30, 1943, 7.

100 E. Krishna Iyer, “Renaissance of Indian Dance and Its Architects,” Indian Fine Arts Society Conference Souvenir (1948): 7.

101 “Ram Gopal’s Bharatanatya, Kathakali: Krishna Ubhayakar and Chandrabhaga Devi’s Dance,” Samyukta Karnataka (Bangalore), October 6, 1943.

102 Paul Affelder, “Ram Gopal and His Company Bring Taste of India to City Center,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 1, 1948, 9.

103 Gopal, Rhythm in the Heavens, 171.

104 Jacques Baltus, “Ram Gopal et Son Ballet Hindou [Ram Gopal and His Hindu Ballet],” Reforme (Paris), February 28, 1948; F. Guillot de Rode, “Danses de L’Inde [Dances from India],” Le Monde Illustre (Paris), February 28, 1948.

105 F. Khellberg, “Ram Gopal,” Morgen Tidningen (Norway), May 6, 1948; Margareta Sjorgren, “Ram Gopal and His Ballet a Success at the Cirkus,” Expressen (Sweden), May 5, 1948.

106 Walter Terry, “The Ballet,” New York Herald Tribune, October 1, 1948; John Martin “Ram Gopal Opening” New York Times, October 1, 1948, 14.

107 O’Shea, At Home in the World, 70-74; Soneji, “Introduction: Critical Steps,” xxxiv-xxxvii.

108 Prarthana Purkayastha, “Dancing Otherness: Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Work of Uday Shankar,” Dance Research Journal 44, no. 1 (Summer 2012): 75-76; David, “Ram Gopal: A Challenge to Orientalism?” 36-38; Gopal, Rhythm in the Heavens, 192-98; Khokar, His Dance, His Life, 128-31,156-58; “Hindu Ballet Cast Arrives,” Age Herald (Birmingham), January 31, 1938.

109 Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, Uday Shankar and His Transcultural Experimentations: Dancing Modernity (Zurich: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), 1-6.

1 All translations from French to English are by Yoann Dequin, Texas Language Center, University of Texas, Austin.

2 In my dissertation, I analyzed how American and British reviews of the 1800s fetishized the nautch performances as Hindu dance, and a 1941 film of Ruth St. Denis’s Radha to argue that St. Denis perpetuated the artifice of Hindu dance. Ruth St. Denis, Radha (Austin, TX: Harry Ransom Center, 1941), video, filmed at Jacob’s Pillow, Massachusetts, by Dwight Godwin, commentary by Walter Terry. For more on St. Denis’s appropriations, see Priya Srinivasan, Sweating Saris: Indian Dance as Transnational Labor (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011), 43-88; Mohan Khokar, “Western Interest in, and its Impact on, Indian Dance,” Bulletin of the Institute of Traditional Cultures (1961): 206–08.

3 Shankar created the piece titled Krishna and Radha for Anna Pavlova’s 1923 production Oriental Impressions. Shankar and Pavlova performed the duet. See “Oriental Dances: Bright Features,” Gazette (Montreal), October 23, 1923, 8.

4 Shankar experimented elaborately with his piece on Siva between 1930 and 1950. Shankar embodied Coomaraswamy’s iconographical and rhythmic theories through costume and movement. He depicted Siva in a balletic narrative that had two versions: Tandava Nrittya and Shiva Parvati Nrytta Dwandva. In the latter, Shankar choreographed a dance competition between Siva and Parvati. See Winthrop Sargeant, “Shan-Kar Troupe Offers Program of Unusual Type,” New York Herald Tribune, January 11, 1937; Irving Kolodin, “Ballet and Dance: Shankar Returns in Hindu Dances After Ten Years,” New York Sun, December 28, 1949, 14.

5 The hereditary dancer held a communal identity as an erudite and powerful artist, whereas the Brahmin caste asserted themselves as hierarchically superior within the Hindu social continuum as priests, scholars, and protectors of the sacredness of the Hindu religion. See Amrit Srinivasan, “Reform or Conformity? Temple ‘Prostitution’ and the Community in the Madras Presidency,” in Bharatanatyam: A Reader, ed. Davesh Soneji (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010), 147; Romila Thapar, “Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity,” Modern Asian Studies 23, no. 2 (1989): 209-12.

6 For examples of critics praising Shankar’s Indra dance and dances on Siva, see Jerome D. Bohm, “Uday Shan-Kar and His Ballet Give Recital,” New York Herald Tribune, December 16, 1937, 23; H.P, “Hindu Ballet: Shan-Kar and His Group Dance for the Forum,” Bulletin (PA), December 11, 1937.

7 These critics used their pen names and real names alternatively.

8 I borrow Shankar’s quote from the following review: John Martin, “The Dance: Art of India: Shan-Kar Criticized as Departing […],” New York Times, February 4, 1934, 8X.

9 I borrow Shankar’s quote from the following review: G.K Seshagiri (G.K.S.), “Uday Shankar Again,” Sound and Shadow 2, no. 10 (October 1933): 49.

10 Paul Affelder reviewing Gopal for his performance in New York for Brooklyn Daily Eagle highlighted Gopal’s activities in India to justify why he was the best representative from the country. See note 102.

Additional information

Funding

The archival research was supported by a College of Fine Arts and Performance as Public Practice Fellowship at the University of Texas, Austin.

Notes on contributors

Priya Venkat Raman

PRIYA VENKAT RAMAN has a PhD from the Performance as Public Practice Program in the Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Texas, Austin. She is a Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, and dance critic. In research and teaching, Raman focuses on Indian dance history and theory, narrative and indigenous performance practices, diasporic hybridization, dance criticism, and postcolonial studies. Her performances use classical vocabulary to explore Indian poetry and cultural aesthetics. She has led community-based programs to introduce art education into the school curriculum. She co-founded an eZine, The Kalaparva, to promote Indian art and artists.