Towards a British Natyam: Creating Classical Indian Dance Tradition

The story of the emerging professionalization of classical Indian dance forms in Britain is wrought with contradictions. Though becoming increasingly popular within mainstream culture, the forms lack the clear routes to vocational training so essential for creating a dance career in the traditional sense. Towards a British Natyam uses this lens to analyze the cultural, social, and political frameworks that make a profession possible within the arts. Innovatively drawing on the work of decolonial theorists and the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, Gorringe illuminates the transformative potential of a classical Indian dance profession to decenter white supremacist modes of knowledge formation and recenter pluriversality.