Routes Beyond Roots: Indian Performing Arts and Virtual Culture(s)

Over the last number of years, Indian classical dance traditions have seen major shifts in terms of practice, pedagogy, and performance, both ‘at home’ in India and in diaspora contexts. These changes have been intensified most recently by two primary and co-related phenomena; the global adoption of specific algorithmic social media and streaming platforms, and lockdown restrictions imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. What happens to the embodied physical presence on virtual platforms? What are the ethical and artistic issues with AI interventions in classical dance? How has the format of the art form been modified to fit in digital spaces? What do these transformations mean for the future of the dance forms? How are socio-political issues embedded and addressed in such spaces? 

Recognising these mediations on digital dancing bodies and the scope of such largely unexplored digital interventions in Indian classical dance, we call for an in-person symposium to contribute to a growing body of dance research. This two-day symposium to be held on the 13th and 14th of June 2024 and hosted by University College Dublin, aims to bring scholar-practitioners, artists, and researchers working with Indian dance together to explore these recent transformations. Dr Prarthana Purkayastha (Royal Holloway University, London), whose work revolves around the intersections of Indian dance studies and transnationalism, identity, diaspora, and decoloniality, will deliver the keynote address.