Moved to Dance: Remix, Rasa, and a New India

This article looks at Bollywood dance to explore the production of the commodified bodies of global consumer culture. It focuses on "embodiment" to examine how dominant sensibilities are altered through changes in dance training and technological innovations. I argue that analyzing the dan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inVisual anthropology (Journal) Vol. 22; no. 2-3; pp. 211 - 228
Main Author Chakravorty, Pallabi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 30.03.2009
Subjects
Anthropology of the body
Asian studies
Bollywood
Cinema
Consumerism
Dance
Dancers
Embodiment
Field work
India
Visual anthropology
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Summary:This article looks at Bollywood dance to explore the production of the commodified bodies of global consumer culture. It focuses on "embodiment" to examine how dominant sensibilities are altered through changes in dance training and technological innovations. I argue that analyzing the dancing body as a locus of experience and expression shifts the ground from culture as text or discourse (popular in postcolonial, poststructuralist or choreographic analysis) to embodiment of subjectivity. "Remix" is the term that describes both the new training techniques and the aesthetics of Indian dances. Since the older boundaries of high and low, classical and popular are fluid under globalization, "remix" is replacing traditional codes and aesthetic experiences associated with rasa. I draw on my fieldwork among the "background dancers" in Bollywood films to argue that as consumer culture creates the dominant mode of cultural expression in India, the only durable form of dance practice seems to be the practice of consumption.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:0894-9468
1545-5920
DOI:10.1080/08949460902748113