Negotiating Tradition and Change: Ritual Dance in contemporary Nepal
Fulbright Project Proposal
Fall 2002
by Amita Garg
Just as people change through time, cultures change through history, so does dance change with its environment. Dance techniques pass from generation to generation through embodied memory. An observer may remember certain moments of dance pieces and forever carry these memories with her. These memories are points where the dance has resonated deep in the observer's mind.
I have such a memory in my mind, a vivid scene of a particular Newari classical dance performance. It is one pose from the Mahakali dance, performed by a small girl. Her costume suggested all the darkness and wrath of the Hindu goddess Kali, complete with a black crown and a necklace of skulls. Kali had just finished the dance of destruction, defeating a demon which now rested dead at her feet. She rested her left foot on the demon's back, stuck out her tongue long and opened her eyes wide. At that moment I was amazed at the power of dance to transform this small, delicate girl into a wrathful, powerful goddess. The form looked inhuman, divine, formidable and inaccessible. But then the figure began to change. She slowly outstretched her hand and turned her palm to face us in a gesture of blessing. She took back her tongue and her face lit into a beatific smile. These small gestures brough her body from the divine world to the human. Her form immediately softened from an angry, destructive goddess to a generous, benevolent being. In that one moment her body had crossed all the polarities of emotion, from wrath to tenderness, destruction to protection, divine to human.
When this dance was over the director instructed us not to clap, because this dance is a sacred ritual, done for deities and not for human entertainment. To clap would be to reduce the dance to theatrics. Nepal's dance traditions, classical, monastic, and shamanistic, are historically ritualistic and non-theatrical. Priests and members of certain castes would dance in temples during rituals. These dances were sacred, codified, passed down from generation to generation, and performed totally in secret, with deities as the sole audience members. Dances are usually done at festical and ritual times only. Dance in Nepal is not done for solely aesthetic reasons.
Yet in the face of increasing modernization and rapid globalization, the way dance is performed and seen is changing. Many sons of these priests no longer want to be priests. The old masters of Newari classical dance are dying with no heirs to inherit the art form. Also, people want to profit from Nepal's tourist industry. Marketing Nepali culture to these tourists is one way to increase tourist appeal and interest. Dance in Nepal is becoming a symbol of national identity and expression of culture. Dancers are involved in preserving and propogating these formerly secret dances, in the interest of making these dances public and preserved.
But preservation does not mean replication. The dance technique changes with the time, the audience, and the context. For example, dances performed for tourists are more flashy, entertaining, and geared towards an audience who does not understand the symbols and codes embodied by the dancers. Because tourists do not understand these codes, the dancer must make herself understood in more explicit ways. In ritual, the dancer portraying Kali gives the suggestion of snakes around her neck whereas in modern stage performance the dancer wears a colorful neckpiece of snakes.
In Nepal, this transition from sacred to secular is relatively recent. This makes Nepal a particularly rich place to study the relation between dance and religion. Now that Nepali dances are being taken out of their original contexts, new issues and questions are arising. How do people use Nepali dance as an expression of national identity? Do the cultural programs performed for tourists affect the way Nepalis themselves view the dance? Are some Nepalis opposed to this transition? How does the addition of an audience affect dance technique? How does creative and choreographic alteration change the religious significance of the dance? How does a dance director negotiate the sacred nature of the dance and the newly secular context? How do observers in sacred and secular contexts interpret the dances? I will research the answers to these questions by experiencing the dances in both secular and sacred contexts, among diverse artists and community members.
This project will be a study of Nepali dances in both their original ritual contexts and their newer theatrical forms. I will be studying three types of dances, classical, monastic, and shamanistic. I want to learn the physical dance in depth so that I can learn the subtleties of the form and become an active participant in a dance troupe. Drawing upon my experience in cultural shows and dance performances, as well as my academic background in religion, dance and South Asian culture, I will collaborate with them on their artistic, cultural and choreographic projects. In the process I will learn about how these dance directors are dealing with a changing art form in contemporary Nepal.
I will learn the technique of the Newari classical dances, but I will observe the original, religious context of monastic and shamanistic dances as well. I will observe the full rituals surrounding the dances as well as the dances themselves. During festival times, I plan to go into villages to observe monastic and shamanistic dances. Monastic dances are less condified than Newari classical dances. In monastic dances, the technique itself is relatively simple, but the symbolism of the dance and the power of the performer make the dance meaningful. Shamanistic dances are used for healing. Specifically, I plan to observe the Mani Rimdu Festival in Khumbu, the Gai Jatra in Pokhara, Bhairav Kumari Jatra in Dolkha, and the Tamu Dhee in Pokhara. The village trips will be multi-day visits in which I will either stay with families or in local lodges. I will go to other festivals as opportunities arise.
One of the reasons I chose to learn Nepali classical dance is its similarity to Indian classical dance. Because I already have the foundations, I can study the dance form in a depth that people completely new to the form cannot accomplish in one year. My familiarity with a related technique makes an intense study of Nepali dance forms feasible. I am already familiar with much of the symbolism of Hindu dances, which gives me an eye for subtlety and differences within the two forms. I have also researched, written, and presented a thesis on the relation between Hinduism and Indian classical dance. In this thesis, I used contemporary performance theory as a framework with which to interpret ancient Hindu texts on classical dance. This experience gives me a solid academic background to interpret the dances I will learn and observe in Nepal.
On a global scale, Nepali culture often vanishes under the wing of Indian culture. Nepal has not developed the extensive variety of classical dance traditions India has. Perhaps one of the reasons why Nepali dance is often ignored when confronted with India's many dance traditions is that traditionally, India's dance traditions have been performative and theatrical, while Nepali dance traditions have been local and ritual. When I visited India, I learned that very few people knew anything about Nepal.
Comprehensive research in English, in Nepali dance forms, is rare and hard to find. This Fulbright year in Nepal will give me the opportunity to write about, document, and interpret these dances. I think that dance research is most effective when the researcher learns the forms herself, embodies them and then writes from her experience. My belief in experience in analysis is why I want to learn and participate in the dances and the cultures surrounding them as much as possible.
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