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Session 5	Reading Choreographic Practices
SheenRu Yong	Creating Contemporary Ritual: The Choreographic Approaches of Anna Halprin and Lin Lee-Chen
	A study and comparison of works by two creators of ritual performance—Anna Halprin and Lin Lee-Chen—provide insight into Richard Schechner's efficacy-entertainment continuum as well as how ritual manifests in contemporary performance. Through a close reading of the structure and performance quality of Lin's Miroirs de Vie (Jiao) and Halprin's Circle the Earth "Dancing with Life on the Line," I look at both artist's efforts and results in creating ritual performance and illustrate what I believe to be their distinctive features. Contextualization of the work and the artists' intentions shed light on the possibility or scope of change effected by their creations. While Lin's highly stylized large-scale dance-dramas in many senses cannot be compared to Halprin's nature-oriented participatory community rituals, commonalities in these two works show a strong emphasis on bodily experience, indicating embodiment as fundamental in creating transformative performance.
Aparna Keshaviah	Decoding the Modern Practice of Bharatanatyam
	Bharatanatyam’s typical introduction lauds the dance as “pure” and “ancient,” with 2000 year-old roots. Such mantras help sublimate sexual undertones and imported elements within a classicized form. But as this south Indian dance globalizes, the gravitas of “unbroken tradition” is stymieing innovation. To characterize the nature of “tradition” in contemporary Bharatanatyam practice, questionnaires integrating scientific methodology with artistic nuance were administered to 212 practitioners around India. Statistical analysis revealed extensive diversity. Even body positioning and values lacked uniformity and predictability. In areas with predictable variation, such as knowledge and pedagogy, drivers of differences included: location; other dance training; familiarity with native texts/figures/current writings; and comfort altering movements/choreography. Among teachers, 85% of questions showed no strong majority response. This hybrid research approach reveals Bharatanatyam’s complexity and probable lack of any singular tradition. Understanding the drivers of this complexity could expand Bharatanatyam’s scope and depth as it travels across generations and geographies.
Rosemary Candelario	Performing and Choreographing Gender in Eiko & Koma's Cambodian Stories
	Eiko & Koma's 2006 piece Cambodian Stories: An Offering of Painting and Dance offers an opportunity to analyze the ways gender, the nation, and the global are choreographed and represented on an American stage. Gender is thoroughly implicated in each of the main themes raised by the piece: history (both personal and geo-political), Asian identity, and the relationship between visual art and the performing body. In what ways does this intercultural, intergenerational, and multidisciplinary work complicate our understanding of gender and the nation in the age of globalization? How can a performance such as Cambodian Stories be viewed as a site of (non-western) feminist knowledge production? Might the movements of Eiko & Koma alongside nine young Cambodian painters be evidence of an agency not visible through the gaze of western feminist theory?
	SheenRu Yong is currently an MFA candidate at Taipei National University of the Arts. Originally from the US, she started dancing at Wesleyan University where she received her BA in Letters and Dance. Her current research/choreographic interests include interdisciplinary and community collaboration, somatic practices and creative applications, as well as ritual and embodied enactment
	Aparna Keshaviah is a professional Bharatanatyam dancer and biostatistician. With a Master’s degree in biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health and over 25 years of experience in south Indian dance, Keshaviah performs, teaches, and researches in a hybrid format. Each project integrates artistic exploration with scientific rigor. Her performances strip Bharatanatyam to core elements of rhythm and geometry, probing cultural mediation and forms of expression. Her research investigates Bharatanatyam’s diversity, extension, and evolution. Keshaviah’s understanding and teaching of classical and contemporary Indian dance is enhanced by training in yoga, classical piano, and voice.
	Rosemary Candelario is a scholar, dancer, and activist in the Culture and Performance Ph.D. program at UCLA, where she earned a M.A. with a concentration in dance in 2007. Her current research focuses on the embodied practice and choreography of JapaneseúAmerican dancers, Eiko & Koma.
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