The embodied palimpsest: dancing kinesthetic empathy in bharatanatyam
In the South Asian dance style of bharatanatyam, the devotional bodies of dancers and the gods they portray model a performative porosity about "religious bodies." But what embodied resonances of religiosity transfer when the intention of the dancer or topic is not marked as devotional? Ap...
| Published in: | Body and religion |
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| Subtitles: | "Special Issue: Religious body imagined, part II" |
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox Publishing
2021
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| In: |
Body and religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Bharata natya
/ Rasa
/ Body
/ Representation
/ Refugee
/ Experience
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion BK Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism KBM Asia RA Practical theology TK Recent history |
| Further subjects: | B
Kinesthetic empathy
B embodied religion B Dance B Aesthetics B Rasa B Refugees |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the South Asian dance style of bharatanatyam, the devotional bodies of dancers and the gods they portray model a performative porosity about "religious bodies." But what embodied resonances of religiosity transfer when the intention of the dancer or topic is not marked as devotional? Apsaras Arts' Agathi: The Plight of the Refugee (2017-18) offers an ethnographic case study through which I aim to deepen the theory around the porosity of bodies by developing the theoretical construct of an embodied palimpsest: a framework that allows previous "erased" layers to become present and interactive with later layers. I demonstrate how the choreographed gestures and rasas, or aesthetic moods, utilized to embody certain Hindu myths inform this danced portrayal of migrant experiences, but also note how the interactive layers of the palimpsest reshape classical theories about rasa, in particular karuna rasa, the mood of compassion, and can be used to particularize theories about kinesthetic empathy. |
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| ISSN: | 2057-5831 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Body and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/bar.21543 |