Chhapaka: Toward Online Embodiment and Discursive Shifts in Indian Dance

ABSTRACT

The pandemic has forced Indian dance communities to pivot to online mediums. I investigate pandemic-induced shifts in two ways. I theorize through Chhapaka (a sling-shot movement involving oppositions of footwork and torso articulations) of my dancing Odissi (an eastern Indian traditional form) body, providing an embodied metaphor of transformations occurring in Indian dance through online media. I also investigate how Darshan (seeing), a concept important to traditional Indian dance, becomes an example of discursive shifts occurring in Indian dance. I overview digital content—choreography accompanied by verbal sharing of processes, life-styles, and concerns by Odissi practitioners—alongside my web-based pedagogical approaches instituted in higher education. I argue that the field of Indian esthetics, having been forced to grapple with loss of opportunity as well as inherent inequities, could potentially experience a discursive shift in identity. Further, I maintain that building online communities of practice expands dance studies in academia.

KEYWORDS:

• Odissi
• Indian classical dance
• Rasa
• Darshan
• Chhapaka

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I define Indian dance as forms originating in the Indian sub-continent and diaspora. In Dance Matters: Performing India editors Chakravorty and Gupta (2012) outline the negotiations of Indian dance with modernity analyzing current debates on nationalism, transnationalism, gender and sexuality, and postcolonial politics. This article continues the debate while foregrounding experiential dimensions of embodied knowledge.

2. It is necessary to note that the performance mainly refers to solo dancing that is integral to the Indian “classical” styles. It is impossible to appreciate ensemble choreography in this format unless and until there is a heavily produced multi-camera editing process in real-time intermittently zooming in and out of individual poignant moments and the entire crew.

3. In my analysis, I leave out many examples, including a made-for-Zoom promotional video for the 2021 YoungArts Finalists featuring Odissi dancer Shalini Basu (2021). Rehearsal footage from Zoom recordings is tied together to create a YouTube promo. The virtual medium pits Basu’s traditional esthetics in a hypermobile technologized musicality that uniformly features Western concert, diasporic African, and Indian dance styles. This fragmented viewing of Indian esthetics paves the way for new modalities of engagement and spectatorship, and new understandings of Indian dance as an internationally-practiced form, set in motion alongside many other, seemingly unmoored, styles.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Inclusive Excellence Grants from UNC Charlotte (formerly known as the Chancellor's Diversity Challenge Fund).