Sweat soaked saris: Dance disclosures

A daring book reveals the unacknowledged influence of Indian classical dance into America's modern genre

of Somh Asian communities in the US, and their location within tl, e US multicultural discourse.

In her ground-breaking work, Sweati11g Sari.s: Indian Dance as Trat1.mational J__,t;/;or (December 30, 2011) Priya Srinivasan examines dancers not just as aesthetic bodies, but as transnational migrant workers and wage earners who negotiate ciri2enship and gender issues.

Sweating Saris see ks to understand dance - and more spec ifically, Bharatanaryam - as gendered bodily labour, and through it, highlights racism and a certain cultural bias inherent in the idea of American citizenship The author argues that by examining the dancing woman as a labourer, one can see her negotiating the terms of US citizenship. The dancers' sweat-soaked sari is the symbol of that umecogn.ized L'lbour - and hence the title of the book. Srinivasan introduces and deals with several complex ideas in tl1e book - in duding the idea of Bharatanat:yam dancers as upholders of cultural nationalism ln the course of her inquiry, she examin es and demonstrates the debt owed by Ruth St Denis to Indian dance which has never been recognised or admowledged. following the work of Edward Said's Oriental.ism, the author places chis squarely in the lap of US colonialism and imperialism of the earl y cwencietl1 century. Srinivasan poims out that Ruth Sc Denis's 'modernise' p roject of American dance reproduced 'nach/llalis dance' of lnclia without acknowledging it; tl1e contribution made to her career by Indian male perform ers was erased from public discourse; St Denis benefitted from fodian dancers and cead,ers withou t honouring them. The nachwalis labour was effectively effaced through the process of absorption of their dance practices without acknowledging their contribution.

Ruth St Denis never admitted the contribution of Indian bodies to her dancing, ye t she is touted as tllis great innovator of 'modern dance'

- the gurn of the legendary Martha Grah am. Invoking the French philosopher Foucault's ideas, Priya Srinivasan d escribes Indian dancers as the sub al terns: male and female Indian labour in the context of race-charged US citizenship debates.

The author argues that they h.ighligh c the rac.is c overtones and w1derpinnings p reviously sidelined in North American Orientalist discourse. l'vfoclern dance attempted to establish itself as new and original, w llile d enying its Oriental origi ns Tilis is part of the construction of tl1e Luger myth tl,ac US citizeosllip is a purely a white endeavour.

The author, while dem onstrating this, nevertheless resists the temptation of going to the otl1er extreme: o f clinging to tl,e idea that Bharatanatyam - and Indian cl assical dance - in .its twen tietb century form as somehow 'authe n tically traditional'. She locates those ideas coo in India's independen ce movement and it.~ drive to establish a national identity

In Chapter 6, Srinivasan argues that wllile resisting the dominant A merican culrure represented by \Vb.ice American nationalism in the early twentietl1 century, Indian dance coo, presented its own problems of cultural nationalism. Nevertl, eless ic offered and offers an alternative to the dominant mainstream US citizenship, and allows ymmg lndian dancers to access possible alternatives to assimilation - however temporary.

Srinivasan merges edrnography, llistory, critical race theory, performance and post-colonial srudies am ong otl,er disciplines to i nvestigate tl1e embodied experience of Indian dance. She is the 'unruly sp ectator'; the dance etlmographer who frames tl,e whole field of Indian dance witllin the larger question o f race, gender, class and politics. This book is nor for everyone. It is written very much in academic language and apart from acad emics, few readers will be able to read the book from cover to cover and be able to glean the tlu·ust of tl,e autl1or's argrnnent. That d oes not take away from i t tl1e fact tl1ac it is an important book that needed to be written; an argument that had to be made. Srinivasan makes it forcefully, deai·ly, honestly, fearlessly, ai1d with a great degree of sophistication.

Priya Srinivasan is Associate Professor in Critical Dance Srudie.~ at the Department of Dance, of California, Ri verside. In 2008, she rece ived the Gertmde Lippinco tt Award given by the Society of Dance History Sd10lars for tl,e best English-language article published in dance studies.

''The author argues that by examining the Indian-American dancing woman as a labourer, one can see her negotiating the terms of US citizenship ' '