Dance and the Secular
Embodiment as Political Imagination
Dance and the Secular
Embodiment as Political Imagination
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.
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Table of Contents
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
| Published | 01 Apr 2027 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 160 |
| ISBN | 9781350555549 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 32 b&w |
| Series | Dance in Dialogue |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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