ABSTRACT
In thinking through the relationship between art and contemporary politics in India, and contemplating how art does politics, classical dance-and classical dancers-seem to face an inevitable dilemma: contending with the prevailing idea that dance is ontologically apolitical because it does not articulate or “speak” intelligibly, transparently, or powerfully in the way that, for instance, mediums like cinema, literature, music, and theatre might (Foster 1995). In such a scenario, where the legitimate expression of the political is inexorably bound up with forms of linguistic articulation, the classical dancer is deprived of the status of a speaking subject. This proposition then generates an absurd tautology: since occupying the position of speaking subject is regarded as the prerequisite or condition for participating in the realm of the political, then the classical dancer is, by virtue of her perceived silence, doubly denied entry into this space.
