SOUTH ASIAN DANCE AND LGBTQ+ IDENTITIES

British South Asian dance has historically tended to be the domain of dominant caste, class privileged, able-bodied, heterosexual, Hindu, and cis-gender women of Indian heritage, and the three lead researchers are all positioned within each of these categories.

CalledSouth Asian Dance Equity (SADE): The Arts That British South Asian Dance Ignores, the project will examine five key areas:

• the dominance of Indian/Hindu dance forms and artists
• LGBTQI+ artists
• caste-oppressed artists
• disabled artists
• and folk and Adivasi (indigenous) arts and artists

Working with five key South Asian arts organisations; Akademi, Baithak, Balbir Singh Dance Company, Nupur Arts, and Sampad, and The Place Theatre as project partners, the network aims to build a more equitable dance sector through exchanges between artists and scholars from South Asia and the UK.

SADE is an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded #DanceResearchMatters network grant project.

The project’s second webinar is co-curated with Jaivant Patel Company and Baithak UK and titled “South Asian Dance and LGBTQ+ Identities”. It will feature dance artists Nikhita Devi (UK); Komal Gandhar (India)Raheem S. Payne (UK); Shiva Raichandani (UK); and Fazle Shairmahomed (The Netherlands) and their provocations on how their work unsettles the cisgenderism and heteronormativity that dominates British South Asian culture, including and especially dance.Their provocations will be followed by a Q&A with the attendees.