Bharatanatyam and Identity Making in the South Asian Diaspora: Culture through the Lens of Occupation

Abstract

Culture, when defined as those activities that bring meaning to people's lives, has many parallels to occupation, also an exploration of meaning making. This article examines the relationship between culture and occupation through bharatanatyam, a South Indian classical dance. Based on fieldwork carried out in Los Angeles, CA with the Shakti Dance School and Company, this paper explores bharatanatyam's role in racial, ethnic, and religious formation (real and imagined). What does it mean that Lila, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian is more Indian than her South Asian American classmates? What is the significance of Sana and Henna, two Pakistani-American Muslim students, choreographing an Islamic song to bharatanatyam when Islam prohibits any form of dancing, let alone its interpretation through a Hindu art form? I demonstrate how bharatanatyam is a cultural occupation. Additionally, in contesting traditional notions of culture as homogenous, cohesive and pure, I reconfigure culture as a creative process of meaning making, always in a state of emergence, always needing to be ‘worked at’. Thus, I argue for culture itself as a form of occupation.

Keywords:

• Dance
• Traditional occupation
• Indian culture

Notes

1. Given that this question – dance as a transformative occupation – was not my focus of investigation, this conclusion is only a deduction based on interview and informal conversation with students and dancers, where responses reflected six of the criteria from Graham's Teaching Conditions Theory.

2. Appropriate permissions were obtained for data gathering.

3. Parvathi is considered the reincarnation of Shakti, or female energy, and is often referred to as the mother goddess.