Sunday, October 31, 2010

Engendered through mudras

Exploring how Baratnatyam is engendered through the same mudras that are used in both lasya and tandava.

5 comments:

  1. What an interesting contribution to our dialogue. Your exploration of lasya and tandava expressions of mudras in Baratnatyam is a natural extension of the mudras workshop we had in class. How can you use your awareness about mudras in your stage performances to subvert gender stereotypes?

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  2. oh nice!!!
    i don't know much about bharatnatyam, infact that day it was my 1st bharatnatyam class.
    but i am aware of fact that bharatnatyam is enciet form of art.
    therefore you can c there has been equality in male and female in art form for all these years
    then why not in society?

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  3. Totally agree with mitwa...i did'nt know that similar moves could be used to mean both 'masculine' or 'feminine' actions in bharatnatyam.
    After all these classes I seriously feel to move ahead we need to look back a little. It turns out ancient Indians were far more matured and versatile with the concept of gender than us.

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  4. I have studied Bharatnatyam and not once did i explore the femininity and masculinity of the mudras. Thank you for enlightening us with your simple yet effective revelation. Hand gestures used with different speeds, directions, flow and aggression can completely change stereotypical notions and interpretations. If we could use this role reversal in a performance of our own it could open the public's eyes to look beyond one face of a coin and flip the gender relations within a society. Well done Malvika and Samhitha!

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  5. serously great work ....i really think that it is amazing how we fail to obseve one particular mudra can be some so masculine and feminine.And it is amazing how just by the way one particular mudra is used it expresses something so diverse and thus beaking the steotypical view of the feminity and masculinity .
    this totaly builds on the fact that all individual have equal portion of feminity and masculinity .and we should not be ashamed of exposing it any situations like it is expected ..

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