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Volume 10, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2040-5669
  • E-ISSN: 2040-5677

Abstract

Abstract

This article reflects the process of choreographic making where the choreographer actively decentres her choreographic choices by collaborating with participating dancers and historical inspirations. It explores the creative potential of archives – a set of temple-sculptures found in eastern India called the (meaning indolent maidens) – as past evidence of historically marginalized bodies of the temple-dancers, also known as , in the field of the eastern Indian classical dance form called (AK), a Practice as Research (PaR) experiment, imbricates the historical and the theoretical in choreographic practice, re-inscribing the archival traces of the as found in the sculptural traces of the by an inculcated deconstruction of dance vocabulary. According to philosopher Jacques Derrida, deconstruction destabilizes the hierarchy between the centres and margins of a given area of knowledge. This experiment questions the hierarchical construction of dance as technically elevated than performance. Theoretical deconstruction is complemented by an embodied investigation via structured studio improvisations using the Creative Articulations Process (CAP). Choreographic process and analysis of AK deconstructs the technicity in Odissi movement via engaging with the or the sculptural archives of the in Indian temples. In this way, the once marginalized interrupts the dominant historical narratives and disrupts the patriarchal construction of a male centre, in turn questioning the agency of the choreographer in the choreographic process.

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2019-12-01
2024-04-19
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De-centring the choreographer: Historically inspired interruptions/disruptions in an exploration between sculpture and movement1
Choreographic Practices 10, 269 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1386/chor_00007_1
/content/journals/10.1386/chor_00007_1
/content/journals/10.1386/chor_00007_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Alasa-Kanya; deconstruction; history; Mahari; Odissi; practice as research; sculpture

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