Abstract
The chapter opens up a space for investigating how the Freudian notion of the “uncanny” can be utilised as a choreographic and a research device to analyse contemporary/Bharatanatyam danceworks. Drawing on practice, it demonstrates how the celebration of techno-human bodies by contemporary choreographers has not only provided room for expressing artistic subjectivities but has also expanded the psycho-visual aesthetics of performance. Furthermore, a critical discussion allows the readers to comprehend how the scope of Bharatanatyam as a cultural dance in Britain has been broadened through the art of technological doubling. Locating it at the intersection of the Freudian psychoanalysis and theories based on the digital body, Banerjee argues that these works connect the organic to the digital, the fictional to the personal, and the experiential to the social.
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Notes
- 1.
Married to gods, devadasi-s lived in temples and performed services to the deities. To know more about the history of devadasi-s, see D. Soneji, Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India; S. C. Kersenboom, Nityasumangali Devadasi Tradition in South India; A. Meduri, Nation, Women, Representation: The Sutured History of the Devadasi and Her Dance.
- 2.
As the revivalist movement of the Indian arts in the 1930s was configured by the nationalist imagination of a “pure” and “sacred” tradition, the reformers had excluded devadasi-s from it because of their fallen status in society. Therefore, the “classicisation” of Bharatanatyam, although elevated the form on the national platform, had uprooted the original dance practice (Srinivasan 1985). In postcolonial India, the reformers further tried to elevate its national image by seeking a lineage with the most valued retrieved Sanskrit text on Indian dramaturgy Natyasastra (Srinivasan 1985), thereby “sanskritising” the Bharatanatyam dance tradition (Coorlawala 2004).
- 3.
Performance scholars have debated the presence of a digitally reproduced body in a “live” performance . For a critical discussion, see P. Auslander, Liveness, Performance in a Mediatized Culture, and P. Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance.
- 4.
In dance classrooms, the term angasuddhi (“purity of limbs”) is used for indicating the coordination of various body parts for delivering a perfect rendition of movements within a given unit of time. It has also gained currency as an object of criticism in Bharatanatyam recitals due to being used as a measure of overall performance skill.
- 5.
Bharatanatyam dance has a deeply ingrained theory that “physicality is contradictory to refinement” (Coorlawala 2004, 56), as noted in the Kalakshetra style founded by Rukmini Devi. As a socio-cultural construct, the “sanskritised body” aims to uphold cultural values and moral standards along with the demonstration of authentic technique, appropriate costumes and repertoire (Coorlawala 2004).
- 6.
The slash used between “contemporary ” and “Bharatnatyam” is to indicate the juncture of two concepts. By situating these new works within this node, I intend to articulate that the border between “contemporary ” and “classical” is ever-changing and thus liminal .
- 7.
A digital performance is a new genre that incorporates computer technologies into production and in which the movements of the performers are confronted with the stage and projected spaces , blurring the boundaries of the flesh and engineered bodies. To know more about digital culture and performance , see C. Beardon, and G. Carver, New Visions in Performance: The Impact of Digital Technologies; S. Broadhurst, and J. Machon, Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity; S. Dixon, Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation.
- 8.
In this chapter, the “digital body”, the “digital double”, “doubles”, “techno-human bodies” and the “engineered body” are used interchangeably.
- 9.
Sigmund Freud , “The Uncanny,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVII (1917–1919): An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works. Ed. and trans. James Strachey (London: The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1955 [1919]), 220, 222.
- 10.
Matthew Causey, Screen Test of the Double: The Uncanny Performer in the Space of Technology (1999), 394.
- 11.
Freud, The Uncanny, 219.
- 12.
Ibid., 220–6.
- 13.
As a twin, a shadow or a mirror image of the central character, doppelgänger in gothic narratives is used to delineate an undiscovered self or the darker side of the character.
- 14.
For example, see Samuel Beckett’s Endgame [Fin de Partie] (1958 [1957]) that portrays the existential crisis of people through the ambiguity of a game of chess, making the distinction between the rationality of the game of chess and the irrationality of the theatre of absurdity imprecise.
- 15.
In Bharatanatyam dance , an adavu is the integrated movement of hands and feet, performed to metrical syllables.
- 16.
The upper case for the word “Other” is only used when it denotes the postcolonial discourse.
- 17.
Both padam and varnam in the Bharatanatyam repertoire are rich in mimetic technique. The former is a lyrical composition, dominates either in the erotic or spiritual mood, and is sung to a particular melodic mode called raga. It is devoid of metrical recitations and rhythmic movements, while the latter is intricately weaved, featuring both thematic and abstract dance movements.
- 18.
Originally a Sanskrit word, rasa means juice or something that is to be tasted. In Natyasastra, rasa is used as a gustatory metaphor—an object of taste that is produced in a theatrical production (Barlingay 1981). Over the years, this term has seeped into the domain of Indian Classical dance as an object of criticism, especially for appreciating a thematic piece.
- 19.
See also K. Katrak, Contemporary Indian dance: new creative choreography in India and the diaspora and S. Kothari, New Directions of Indian Dance for further discussions.
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Acknowledgements
A fragment of this chapter appeared in my doctoral thesis, and I am thankful to my doctoral supervisors—Andrée Grau, Ann R. David and Avanthi Meduri—for their generous advice. Later, it was substantially developed and presented at the Digital Echoes Symposium at Coventry University in 2015. I wish to extend my gratitude to Sarah Whatley and Matthew Causey for their comments on my presentation. Thanks are also due to the reviewers who provided constructive feedback , Jingqiu Guan, Jessica Fiala and Pritika Agarwal for lending their critical eyes on my writing and the artists (Divya Kasturi, Kamala Devam and Seeta Patel) for their enthusiastic support.
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Banerjee, S. (2018). Performing the Uncanny: Psychoanalysis, Aesthetics and the Digital Double. In: Whatley, S., Cisneros, R., Sabiescu, A. (eds) Digital Echoes. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73817-8_3
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