Bharatanatyam and Transnational Literacy Through SocioCultural Pedagogy

Abstract

This qualitative research paper intends to examine the socio-cultural pedagogies in Bharatanatyam.As an attempt to educate non-Bharatanatyam dancers and dance education researchers, this study focuses on an extensive literature review including data driven studies and position papers. Bharatanatyam, learned using socio-cultural tenets is a valuable Asian Indian artistic and transnational literacy tool. This paper is also an attempt to analyze studies on ballet and flamenco and other scholarly and researched articles on Bharatnatyam. Absence of cognitive benefits of Bharatanatyam in research studies and scholarly articles impacts dance education and Asian Indian children living in the west. Perspective: Bharatanatyam enables the dancers to portray the nine emotions as described in Asian Indian aesthetic theory (Dutta, 2008). Navarasas are the nine emotions (nava is nine in Sanskrit). These sentiments, acquired through socio-cultural pedagogy, are portrayed in several of the dance sequences in Bharatanatyam. These emotions enable the audiences to experience catharsis while watching a theatrical or dance performance. The nine emotions are not taught using text or curriculum, but they are incorporated into dance lessons through socio-cultural instructions during Bharatanatyam choreography. The nine emotions are sringara /love, hasya/comic, bhayanaka/fear, shanta/peace, adhbute/wonder, karuna/pity, rowdra/anger, and veera/bravery (Bhavani and Bhavani, 2001). According to Kushwaha (1994), the audience will be able to reachshanta (peace) rasa after they experience the other eight rasas. Purpose This research paper intends to examine the socio-cultural instructional practices that facilitate learning through Bharatanatyam. This project is an attempt to educate non-Bharatanatyam dancers and dance education researchers to consider Bharatanatyam, learned using socio-cultural instruction, as a valuable transnational literacy tool. The researcher attempts to situate Bahratanatyam in the literature by extensively analyzing studies in scholarly and researched articles on dance including the widely popularized ballet and flamenco dances. Vygotsky (1981) listed a number of examples of semiotic means: "language; various systems of counting; mnemonic techniques; algebraic symbol systems; works of art; writing; schemes, diagrams, maps and mechanical drawings; all sorts of conventional signs and so on" (p. 137).Hence, artistic activities also function as "mediating tools" in learning. Socio-cultural and cognitive psychologists such as Galperin (2003) assert that an individual acquires knowledge "through internalization and transformation of socially constructed shared activities" (Arievitch, p. 284). Two good examples of socially constructed performance arts are the Indian dance and music programs. These two art forms are important popular cultural practices with Asian Indian people living in America. These are derived from practices that are engaging and entertainment pedagogy (Denzin, 2009) that Steiner and Mahn (2009)...