Gender x Kathak

It has been months since my last post. I cannot believe how time flied!! Last weekend I found this online event, ‘Nautch to Kathak’ organised by Re-cognising Dance. The history of Nautch to Kathak is not a new topic at all but it has been mentioned in a number of books. However, the speakers of the virtual event, i.e. Pallavi Chakraborty and Margaret Walker, are the writers of the articles and books that I used to read when I was doing MA and I was curious to see them at this online event.

This event reignited my academic curiosity to think the dance form in terms of gender and history.

I also had some new pieces of information from the virtual event;

- Madame Menaka

Her Europe tours are on archive. Her existence has been a mystery to me. Her name is on kathak books and Dayamanti Joshi wrote a book on her life. She lived in modern period of time near us, but I used to wonder how it would be like to perform in Europe during the time of World War 2, when akathek was actually not really recognised as a classical dance form, and when no women other than tawaifs would have performed. The video on the web page is so precious to know how her troupe was like. So ‘exotic’ with her costume and Balinese-like music. Quite surprised to see the movie and wonder how this dance form would have been related to kathak...

-Mah Laqa Bai

There was a celebrated independent tawaif in Mah Laqa Bai from Hyderabad, whose tomb is preserved as a historical heritage in support of the U.S government. I never knew about her. I am very interested in studying about her and wish to visit the site someday.

-The Last Courtesans of Bombay

While I was web-searching about what I found in the webinar, I happened to find this podcast. It is hurting to know that this notorious tradition of exploit of women’s gender is still happening. 

There are so much that I would like to explore about the dance, history and gender to do something for the world in which I am currently live.