Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-9nbrm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-10T05:26:51.199Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Staging War: Performing Bharata Natyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2013

Ahalya Satkunaratnam
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article is an ethnographic study of Bharata Natyam choreographies performed in venues across Colombo, Sri Lanka, during the ethnically divisive civil war. The compositions reveal the strategies of female choreographers who are using dance to address the war in a climate that often silences citizens from discussing the topic in public. I illuminate the discreet negotiations of ethnic identity taking place within choreographies, informed by circulating meanings ascribed to the dance, the ethnic compositions of the bodies dancing and watching, and the shifting experience of living in the city during an escalating civil war.

Keywords

Bharata NatyamchoreographyethnicitynationalismSri Lankawarwomen

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , April 2013 , pp. 81 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Works Cited

Allen, Matthew. H. 1997. “Rewriting the Script for South Indian Dance”. The Drama Review 41(3): 63–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arundale, Rukmini Devi. 2003. Some Selected Speeches & Writings of Rukmini Devi Arundale. 2 vols. Chennai, India: The Kalakshetra Foundation.Google Scholar
Bharati, Subramania. 1979. Selected Poems of Subramania Bharati. Translated by Srinivas, Krishna. Madras, India: Poet Press.Google Scholar
Bose, Sumantra. 2007. Contested Lands: Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bullock, Alan, and Trombley, Stephen. 1999. The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Coorlawala, Uttara. 2004. “The Sanskritized Body.” Dance Research Journal 36(2): 50–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, Ann. 2008. “Local Diasporas/Global Trajectories: New Aspects of Religious ‘Performance’ in British Tamil Hindu Practice.” Performance Research 13(3): 89–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVotta, Neil. 2000. “Control Democracy, Institutional Decay, and the Quest for Eelam: Explaining Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka.” Pacific Affairs 73(1): 55–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVotta, Neil. 2004. Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ethirajan, Anbarasan. 2009. “How Sri Lanka's Military Won.” BBC News. May 22. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8063409.stm (accessed May 22, 2009).Google Scholar
Guneratne, Arjun. 2002. “What's in a Name? Aryans and Dravidians in the Making of Sri Lankan Identities.” In The Hybrid Island: Culture Crossings and the Invention of Identity in Sri Lanka, edited by Silva, Neluka, 20–40. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Haviland, Charles. 2009. Plea for Sri Lanka Tamil Refugees. BBC News. July 2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8131172.stm (accessed July 2, 2009).Google Scholar
Hiltebeitel, Alfred. 1981. “Draupadhi's Hair.” Purusartha 5: 179–214.Google Scholar
Jackson, Naomi M., and Shapiro-Phim, Toni, eds. 2008. Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion. Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Jayawardena, Kumari, and de Alwis, Malathi. 1996. Embodied Violence: Communalising Women's Sexuality in South Asia. London; New Jersey: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Jeganathan, Pradeep. 2003. “In the Shadow of a Riot: 1983 and After.” Nethra 6(1 & 2): 139–59.Google Scholar
“Kalalaya's 50-Year History.” 1998. In Golden Anniversary Souvenir Booklet. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Kalalaya School of Music and Dance.Google Scholar
Kersenboom-Story, Saskia C. 1987. Nityasumangali: Devadasi Tradition in South India. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Little, David. 1994. Sri Lanka: The Invention of Enmity. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Manning, Susan. 2004. Modern Dance, Negro Dance: Race in Motion. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Manogaran, Chelvadurai, and Pfaffenberger, Bryan, eds. 1994. The Sri Lankan Tamils: Ethnicity and Identity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Meduri, Avanthi. 1996. “Nation, Woman, Representation: The Sutured History of the Devadasi and Her Dance.” Ph.D. diss., New York University.Google Scholar
Ness, Sally Ann. 1992. Body, Movement, and Culture: Kinesthetic and Visual Symbolism in a Philippine Community. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
New York Times. 2009. “Sri Lanka Says Leader of Rebels Has Died.” May 18. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/world/asia/19lanka.html?_r=1 (accessed May 19, 2009).Google Scholar
Novack, Cynthia Jean. 1990. Sharing the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
O'Shea, Janet M. 1998. “Traditional” Indian Dance and the Making of Interpretive Communities.” Asian Theatre Journal 15(1): 45–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Shea, Janet M.. 2007. At Home in the World: Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
O'Shea, Janet M.. 2008. “Serving Two Masters: Bharatanatyam and Tamil Cultural Production”. In Performing Pasts: Reinventing the arts in modern South India, edited by Peterson, Indira V. and Soneji, Davesh, 165–93. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Polgreen, Lydia. 2010. “Sri Lanka Arrests Defeated Candidate.” The New York Times, February 9, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/world/asia/09lanka.html (accessed February 9, 2010).Google Scholar
Rajasingham-Senanayake, Darini. 1999. “Post Victimisation: Cultural Transformation and Women's Empowerment in War and Displacement.” In Women, Nation and Narration: Collective Images and Multiple Identities, edited by Thiruchandran, Selvy, 136–51. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.Google Scholar
Reed, Susan A. 2009. Dance and the Nation: Performance, Ritual, and Politics in Sri Lanka. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Ruwanpura, Kanchana. 2008. “The Gender and Spatial Politics of NGOs: Spaces of Subversion, Sites of Reinforcement.” In Constellations of Violence: Feminist Interventions in South Asia, edited by Perera-Rajasingham, R., 93–120. New Delhi, India: Women Unlimited.Google Scholar
“Saiva Mangaiyar Vidyalayam: Hindu Ladies College.” 1998. Mangaiyar Malar 1930–1998. 24–5. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Saiva Mangaiyar Kalaham.Google Scholar
Ahalya, Satkunaratnam. 2009. “Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict: Practicing Bharata Natyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka.” Ph.D. diss., University of California–Riverside.Google Scholar
Savigliano, Marta. 1995. Tango and the Political Economy of Passion. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Sengupta, Somini. 2006. “Kidnappings Haunt Long War in Sri Lanka.” The New York Times. November 11. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/world/asia/07lanka.html# (accessed November 11, 2006).Google Scholar
Silva, Neluka. 2002. The Hybrid Island: Culture Crossings and the Invention of Identity in Sri Lanka. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Sklar, Deidre. 2001. Dancing with the Virgin: Body and Faith in the Fiesta of Tortugas, New Mexico. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Srinivasan, Amrit. 1985. “Reform and Revival: The Devadasi and Her Dance.” Economic and Politcal Weekly 20(44): 1869–76.Google Scholar
Srinivasan, Priya. 2012. Sweating Saris: Indian Dance as Transnational Labor. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Stutley, Margaret, and Stutley, James. 1977. A Dictionary of Hinduism: Its Mythology, Folklore and Development, 1500 B.C.–A.D. 1500. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tambiah, Stanley J. 1986. Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Thiruchandran, Selvy. 1998. The Spectrum of Femininity: A Process of Deconstruction. Delhi, India: Vikas Publishing House.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam. 1988. The Break-Up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam. 2000. Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Winslow, Deborah, and Woost, Michael D.. 2004. Economy, Culture, and Civil War in Sri Lanka. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Zolberg, Aristide R., Suhrke, Astri, and Aguayo, Sergio. 1989. Escape from Violence: Conflict and the Refugee Crisis in the Developing World. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar