This is how we dance now!
WACD | 4 p.m., Kaufman Hall
What can the embodied aesthetics of dance performance tell us about the contemporary cultures we inhabit? Drawing on ethnographic research among Reality Show dancers and Bollywood back-up dancers in India, Dr. Pallabi Chakravorty will show how a new generation of dancers and choreographers are performing the spectacle of consumerist modernity in India. While the nationalist project of dance pedagogy instituted through the system of “guru shisya parampara” is being broken down by the growth of media, migration, and participatory democracy, new identities of femininity and masculinity are being forged through song and dances called “item numbers”. “Remix” signifies the new practice of transmission of bodily knowledge through dance that includes the aspirational emotions associated with celebrity culture, new media, and hybrid cosmopolitan subjects.
Pallabi Chakravorty is the Director of Dance and Associate Professor in the Department of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College, where she teaches interdisciplinary theory courses on performance and studio courses in Kathak dance and dance making. Her ethnographic research in India has resulted in several publications and choreographies. The interdisciplinary publications are spread through journals of Dance, Anthropology, History, and Literary studies. She is currently working on a new research project on Yoga, Performance, and Health. Pallabi is the founder and artistic director of Courtyard Dancers, a non-profit dance company based in Philadelphia and Kolkata (www.courtyarddancers.org).
This event is presented by the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance.
Event Date: Monday, Feb. 25, 4 p.m.
Venue: Kaufman Hall 208
Price: Free
Kaufman Hall is located in North Campus off of Sunset Boulevard.
Parking is available in lot 4.
Stay engaged. Use #UCLAarts to stay connected.
