Interweaving Dance Cultures
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In the well known Nehru Memorial, the former residence of the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the Indian capital, Professor Brandstetter used the opportunity of the second Leibniz Lecture in India to report on this research area in the arts and humanities,. thus initiating a discussion on the differences, crossovers and possibilities for an exchange between artists and scholars or researchers in India and Germany.
The issues raised in the Leibniz Lecture – to what extent varying cultural knowledge, aesthetics and concepts of the body are expressed in dance and in what way dance from different cultures is interwoven in contemporary contexts - found a lively echo in the discussion after the lecture. In particular, the question of the status of "traditional" classical Indian dance today became a focus of the debate.
Professor Brandstetter was also involved in this subject area after the Leibniz Lecture during her visit organised and accompanied by the DFG Office in India. In different institutions, the discussions, with a diverse and often controversial emphasis, revolved around the relationship between traditional and contemporary dance. At the same time, the multi-faceted debates also touched on basic issues of the humanities and social sciences, historical research, as well as "post-colonial" and "gender studies." With reference to dance, its concepts of the body and issues of (political) space, e.g, the tension between the dance traditions of North and South India, it was evident how controversial this subject can be, even and especially for inter-disciplinary and inter-cultural academic and scientific exchange, which has not been highlighted very much until now. It was not so much the East-West (India-Europe) contrast but rather the complex relationship between the traditional and the contemporary and also the shaping of multiple concepts of the modern in the Indian-South East Asian Region that became the key issue in the discussions.
Three young researchers travelled with Professor Brandstetter from Berlin, Christina Deloglu, Holger Hartung and Kirsten Maar, who introduced their own research on the stages of the National School of Drama under the directorship of Dr. Anuradha Kapur, the Abhas Trust, headed by Navtej Johar, and the School of Arts and Aesthetics of the Jawaharlal Nehru University under the deanship of Professor Parul Dave Mukherji.
"Roundtable Discussions" at the Goethe Institute - Max Mueller Bhavan with the title "Dance and Choreography - Between Arts, Research and Public Sphere," on March 8, 2011, concluded Professor Brandstetter's tour. Anusha Lall, Shri Sadanand Menon, Jayachandran Palazhy and Shuddhabrata Sengupta were some of the renowned representatives from the contemporary Indian dance performance scene who participated in this very well attended event. Topics of the exchange ranged from classical dance forms, their codes and body disciplines, to the challenges of contemporary artistic practices and media. Both at the scientific and academic as well as the artistic level the discussions provided ample starting points for a continuation of the inter discussion. Attendees felt that those issues focussing on possibilities and forms of connecting artistic practice and theory as well as possibilities to promote them were the most urgent. They encouraged further discussions between Berlin and New Delhi.
From the point of view of the delegation from Berlin the visit was very successful. Before flying back to Berlin Professor Brandstetter commented to representatives of the Indian press: “Our stay in New Delhi was path-breaking for further projects. We have created a basis as regards the content of research interests and ideas for a project specific, more long-term exchange between the FU Berlin and institutions in New Delhi. The crucial innovation which will place a new emphasis on the understanding of the humanities and social sciences consists in a cooperation in research in this area, which includes artists, academics and researchers, dancers and dance theory scholars equally.”
