"Body, Identity and Performance: A Dancer’s Perspective" by Madhur Gupta

It is LGBT Pride Month and I have been invited to express my views on a crucial topic of body, identity and performance through my perspective. Initial thoughts that come to me are first of immense relatability but competing with these emotions of familiarity are notions of disassociation.

As much as I feel a part of this discussion, the feeling of being disconnected and far off from the eye of the storm split my existence. I will go ahead and explain how, but before that, I will give a fair disclaimer of this piece being not an academic paper but a heartfelt viewpoint of an insider in words that are accessible to all.

Kala Krishna, Kuchipudi artist

PC Avinash Pasricha

As a dancer, the body is all we have. It is our instrument, our mode of communication, our temple, our friend, and an all-encompassing shrine of expression. We dance our stories that usually come from a deep place of self-expression. Thus, when dancers feel the need to take up a subject relating to the lgbtqia+, not do I feel completely in tune with the resonance but also commend younger artists taking up not-so-traditional pieces and making it their own, in a voice that they are convinced about, a subject that is significantly relevant in today's age, but also a theme that needs to be brought into the mainstream arena and conversed about. For me, the split happens when my colleagues or artists younger than me confuse body with their identities.

Are body and identity interconnected? Yes. Are they the same? For me, it's a very sharp No. I remember one of my Odissi Gurus yelling at a male dancer once: "We know you are gay. But on stage be whatever the character is!". A similar tune I heard from the celebrated Bharatanatyam maestro Navtej Johar once. He said as a dancer he has the liberty to be a hero, villain, damsel, rock, tree, Ram, Ravan, whatever one wishes to be. Then why do artists who identify and relate to a certain sexuality bind themselves to just that existence on stage too? Such a waste of talent!

I would like to draw the attention of the readers towards the fact that Indian performing arts have traditionally been rich with ‘men in drag’ concept. Be it the stree veshams of Kuchupudi or Kathakali, our arts have always dealt with themes that transgress the boundaries of gender and sexuality. Hence to be honest, themes such as these are not novel to Indian sensibilities.

traditional kathakali artist in stree vesham

PC Avinash Pasricha

In today’s time and age I completely understand the need for younger artists from the community to express their stories. However, I have an issue with the intention. Is the intention to take up a topic just because it is the talk of the town right now and will fetch easy funding? Is the intention to create a piece because one has made their sexual identity the means and end to all? Is the performance being created to genuinely advocate the rights of lgbtqia+ community?

Again, I am not an expert, but in India whatever I have witnessed seems a bit shallow. At the most one takes up Shikhandi or Chitrangada and then the treatment of the character is conceived very superficially, barely touched upon. That again to me looks like a missed opportunity.

Then there is another category that I completely detest! The one who uses their identity as a weapon or a victim card. “Oh, look at us, we are so downtrodden. Hear our story. Help us unchain these shackles of gender/identity/sexuality crisis. Celebrate our art just because we belong to a certain community.” Notions and artists like these really hurt my sensibilities. By doing so not only does one bring down the standard of art that dedicated artists are trying to pursue but also downgrades the entire issue of lgbtqia+ community receiving a dignified life and acceptance from mainstream society. Yes, people feel inspired enough to make themselves, their life, and their art all focused on just their identity; but how very limiting is that?

Madhur Gupta

PC Payal Bose

Since we are talking of personal experiences and emotions, I have often been coaxed by well-wishers to use my art and voice I have in society to take up issues relating to topics such as these. However, my viewpoint of utilizing one's body and identity to perform one's truth stands very different from the ‘in your face’ approach. For example, never have I ever written in my bio that I am a 'male' performing artist. In my head, this does not only downplay the years of dedicated hard work that I have done at my Gurus’ feet to get a glimpse of my ephemeral art, but it also makes me feel like a victim playing a card to be mercied upon and given a stage not because I am a good artist but because I belong to a certain gender / caste/ community.

When I reflect upon my performative body, the very act that I as a male performing artist is going to the remotest of schools and at the same time to the most coveted stages worldwide to perform, in itself is breaking glass barriers for generations of younger minds from all genders/ identities/ communities to accept art as a respected profession and a male body as a receptor of the same. I have not, do not, will not, and most of all cannot limit and compartmentalize or pigeonhole my identity to a certain community, especially just for stage! I am who I am and sexuality although a major part, exists on a spectrum of the roles I play like that of a son, lover, dancer, disciple, teacher, friend, and most of all a human being.

I am inspired by artists across the world who take up themes related to gender and sexuality rights and treat the subject with the dignity it demands and the sensitivity it dictates. I'm all for advocacy. The very act that I am writing this piece makes me an ally and a part of the great movement we are witnessing in our lifetimes. Let us not be bogged down by the pressures of identity that society thrusts upon us. Let us be everything and nothing simultaneously.

In a world of Dostana let us be Fire.

About The Author -

Madhur Gupta is one of the leading Odissi dance maestros of his generation. The Indian Express has hailed Gupta as one of the few male artists (in a field mostly dominated by women), who not only pursued Indian classical dance with devotion but also excelled at it. Beginning his initial training in Kathak with a maestro like Padma Vibhushan awardee, Pandit Birju Maharaj, he was strongly drawn towards Odissi as his life’s calling.

He has also had the fortune of interacting and learning from masters like Madhavi Mudgal, Bichitrananda Swain and Kumkum Lal. Madhur is currently in advanced training under the renowned dancer and Guru, Smt Sharon Lowen in the Padma Vibhushan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra style of Odissi.

Madhur has to his credit the best-selling book on the life and times of women artists- Courting Hindustan: The Consuming Passions Of Iconic Women Performers Of India. Apart from extensively touring, performing and writing, Madhur also teaches Odissi at Sangeet Vidya Niketan, New Delhi.

PC Karan Takulia

Click here to see Madhur Gupta's Instagram page - https://www.instagram.com/madhur_gupta04/?hl=en

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