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Dance and the Secular

Embodiment as Political Imagination

Dance and the Secular cover

Dance and the Secular

Embodiment as Political Imagination

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Pre-order. Available Apr 01 2027
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Description

This volume draws on a travelling venture called The Secular Project, which travelled across India as well as within the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Vatican City, Italy and Greece, and deliberately chose to address the secular through the moving body.

The question of the secular has so far been studied in philosophy, theology and law departments. Rarely has the secular been imagined, configured and negotiated through the moving body. The Secular Project's catalyst was the recent wave of Hindu nationalism engulfing India's socio-political landscape and set out to explore the experience of creating and performing various iterations of the secular in different global contexts through dance, movement and performance with over 200 collaborators across the world.

Drawing from this far-reaching project, the book offers a range of performative reflections on the subject. In addition to the editor's overview of the scope of The Secular Project, throughout the book are short, curated dialogues with a diverse selection of cultural practitioners, including dancers, choreographers, directors, film-makers and more, who engaged with the project in various capacities.

The form of these dialogues captured here range from WhatsApp messages, email exchanges, photo essays, transcribed conversations, short essays, Q & As and dialogues via multi-modal AI to notes and even doodles.

Overall, the book demonstrates the transformative potential of moving bodies and their ability to galvanise collective action globally and across generations.

Accessibility Information

Additional accessibility information

  • PDF/UA-2, 1.4
  • accessibility@bloomsbury.com

Hazards

The publication contains no hazards

Support for non-visual reading

Has alternative text descriptions for images

Navigation

  • Page list to go to pages from the print source version
  • Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
  • All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order

Table of Contents

List of Images
List of Dialogue Contributors
Foreword Manan Ahmed Asif
Introduction

PART I: The Making of Rituals
Setting Out? A Year Across India??
Movement Exploration Practice of Listening
Artistic Practice in Times of Moral Panic Conversation with Wagner Schwartz
The Secular as a Belief Uttar Pradesh
Feminine Rituals Conversation with Venuri Perera
Movement Exploration Embodying Softness
In Search of a Ritual Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat
Movement Exploration Making and Performing Rituals

PART II: Inhabiting Public Space
Seeking the Warmth of Other Bodies Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
The Body, the Museum and the Street Conversation with Avni Sethi
The Secular at Sea Goa
Movement Exploration Encountering Risk
Making the Ocean Goa
Intimacies in Public Spaces Kerala

Part III: Identity, Community, Resistance
Family, Caste, Community and the Muscle of Resistance Conversation with Sri Vamsi Matta and Nisha Abdulla
Movement Exploration Unlocking the Spine
Won't You Come Out and Play? Karnataka
Reimagining Divinity Conversation with Marc Bratcher
Movement Exploration Cultivating Allies
Dance, Queerness and the Secular Bangalore
Movement Exploration Constructing Intimacy
Queer Borders Conversation with Asad Ali Zulfiqar

Part IV: In the Shadows of the Nation-State
Infections of Solitude Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa
Coloniality, Counterinsurgency, and the Secular Dialogue with María Regina Firmino-Castillo
Movement Exploration Sensing a Space
Creatures That Seek the Sun Himachal Pradesh
Moving Outside Nations and Religions Conversation with Ulduz Ahmadzadeh

PART V: Embodied Multitudes
The Meeting of Pieces of Fabric Encounters Across Geographies
Kinesthetic Empathy and Multicultural Secularities Conversation with Amin Farid (Soultari)
Movement Exploration Embodying Contradictions
Being in the Secular Body Conversation with j. bouey
The Secular in Motion An Archive of Conversations, Ideas and People
In-the-Making New Delhi
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Apr 01 2027
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Pages 160
ISBN 9781350555556
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 32 b&w
Series Dance in Dialogue
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

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