| Navigating the Self, Body, and Identity through Sattriya Nritya: A Gendered Perspective |
| The body is the landscape upon which the ideals of cultures, rituals, rules, and boundaries are imprinted as a symbol of society across different cultures. This gains particular significance, especially in Indian Classical dance, where the pillars of ‘tradition’ and ‘culture’ epitomise the dancer’s role in upholding one’s customs. The body is increasingly brought into discourse through a controlled process of observation and supervision, operating through an internalised ‘self-surveillance’, conforming to culturally constructed ideals of femininity and masculinity. This paper challenges notions of an unchanging, natural body through the Indian Classical dance form of Sattriya Nritya. It was traditionally performed solely by male monks of the Sattras (monasteries) of Assam as a purely devotional act towards the worship of Lord Krishna, but is now being taught to females to showcase the rich history of India’s culture through the bodies of the female dancer. The paper will analyse how practitioners of the art form construct their notion of the ‘self’ through training. It will examine how gendered perceptions within Sattriya Nritya contribute to dancers' agency and their lived experiences. By tracing how ethical and cultural sensitivity inform embodiment and identity, it will attempt to offer a rather nuanced understanding of ‘dance’ as a site of individual and collective transformation. |
| Author: Ms Rishika Kalita
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Submitted on : 21-Dec-2025
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Arts : India/ Classical Dance/ Sattriya |
| Journal ID : 0008-101-0281
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| Views: 7/ Downloads :0 |
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