| Abstract |
"Flexible Bodies charts the emergence of British South Asian dance as a distinctive dance genre. Analyzing dances, dance films, rehearsals, workshops, and touring alongside immigration policy, arts funding initiatives, citizenship discourse, and global economic conditions, author Anusha Kedhar evokes the feel of British South Asian dance as it moves from 'Cool Britannia' multiculturalism in the 1990s to fractious race relations in the wake of the July 7th, 2005 terrorist attacks to austerity measures and the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis, and, finally, to the Brexit referendum in 2016. Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with dancers in Britain and India, in-depth choreographic analysis of major dance works, and the author's own lived experiences as a professional dancer in London, Flexible Bodies tells the story of British South Asian dancers and the creative ways in which they negotiate the demands of neoliberal, multicultural dance markets through an array of flexible bodily practices, including agility, versatility, mobility, speed, and risk-taking. However, flexibility, the book demonstrates, is also a precarious road to success that can stretch dancers (almost) to breaking point. Theorizing flexibility as material and metaphor, the book argues that flexibility is both a tool of labor exploitation and a bodily tactic that British South Asian dancers exploit to navigate volatile economic and political conditions. With its unique focus on the everyday aspects of dancing and dance-making Flexible Bodies honors the lives and labor of dancers and their contributions to a distinct and dynamic sector"-- Provided by publisher. |
