Dancing Bare Feet And Sitting Cross-legged: South-Asian Movement Practice And Anthropology Of The Body

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2025

Published In

Embodied Pedagogies In The Study Of Religion: Transforming The Classroom

Abstract

As an anthropologist and a Kathak dancer engaged for decades in connecting theory and practice, my classrooms are somatic sites for embodied ways of knowing. My pedagogical philosophy has taken shape collaboratively with my students in my classes where they get direct exposure to the multidimensionality of our sensory universe: sound, movement, kinesthetic, textual, and visual. The class activities are not just centered on the textual immanence of language, and detached reasoning but on perception. Through experiential and analytical learning and inquiry, we explore bodily ways of knowing where thoughts are not isolated from emotions. In this chapter, I will explore how knowledge is transmitted, created, and expressed in my Kathak studio classes that connect the bodily discipline of dance with critical inquiry.

Published By

Routledge

Editor(s)

S. Borkataky-Varma and S. Levy-Brightman

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