Choreographing decolonization: pedagogical confrontations at the intersection of traditional dance and liberal arts in higher education in India

ABSTRACT

When the traditional (dance) and the modern (university) intersect within the Liberal Arts, the pedagogical dynamics produced opens possible pathways to approach decolonization as an ongoing praxical pedagogical process. This un-archival unruly lived experience of decolonization proposes a possibility of evoking Indian pasts against the misuses of the present. Arguing for an un-archival response which mediates the insertion of traditional oral mnemocultres into academia, enables knowledge production through heterogeneous modes of practice sustained by an embodied relation with generativity. Examining the relationship between the curriculum, the teacher and the student created in this context, this paper theorizes decolonization as an epistemological move towards understanding, living and moving beyond the colonial translation.

KEYWORDS:

• Pedagogy
• decolonization
• India

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Aadya Kaktikar

Aadya Kaktikar, Associate Professor at the Department of Arts and Performing Arts at the Shiv Nadar University in India, is an Odissi performer and teacher for over two decades. She situates her work at the intersection of Pedagogy, performance and history to create curricula and teacher training programs that are culturally relevant.