Lectures
Lectures include digital slide presentation, followed by Q&A.

A Dance Before Time
When and how did Indian dance begin? What is its connection to the Hindu temple? Why does it deal with Hindu gods and goddesses? This lecture takes a look at Margi, a prototype Indian dance that temple dancers, known as devadasis, practiced. Dancers throughout India and even some parts of Indonesia performed this highly complex and acrobatic art form until the 13th century. No longer practiced today, Margi lives in the form of present-day Indian classical dances and the medieval temple dance sculptures that depict it.

Hindu Temple Art of Medieval South India
South India’s palatial Hindu temples offer the variety of architectural forms and multi-faceted historical context that travelers seek and natives view as places of worship. Covering the religious architecture of three ruling dynasties in southern India’s history, this lecture explores the art of the extravagantly built Chola temple, the meticulously chiseled Hoysala temple, and the spiritedly constructed Vijayanagar temple.

Indian Art: Then and Now
The Smithsonian, MFA, LACMA, and other major museums across the U.S. constantly expand their Indian art collection. Contemporary works from India, by painters such as M.F. Husein, fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at major auction houses. Indian art galleries have sprung up across the eastern seaboard. In celebration of the excitement surrounding Indian art, this survey lecture covers a host of media, geographies, religions, and time periods in Indian art history, from early Buddhist rock-cut architecture, leading up to today’s most notable Indian paintings.

Political Art in India
India’s political history is as old and vast as its art history. From second century B.C. kingly patronage of stone pillars, to a 20th century political party’s use of religious imagery for electoral success, politics and art have connected at various points in India’s past. This lecture offers a survey of Indian art history highlighting various ways in which art has been used in politics, affected by politics, and popularized by politics.

Performances
Performances include an introductory speech explaining context and intermittent demonstrations to help the audience follow along.

Dance Divine
The colorful content of an Indian dance program is a reflection of the wide palette of Hindu gods and goddesses that each dance depicts, praises, or describes. This performance takes the most popularly illustrated deities of the Hindu pantheon, and devotes one dance to the unique characteristics and aura of each. The audience will experience the playful nature of the elephant-faced god Ganesha, the wrath of dancing Shiva, the valor of peacock riding Subrahmanya, the strength of the warring goddess Durga, and the flirtatious effect of the youthful Krishna, by witnessing a specialized combination of music, movement, and facial expression corresponding to each.

Dancing Damsel
Devadasis, literally ‘slaves of God,’ were women that resided in Hindu temples and performed dance for rituals. Symbolically married to the deity, the devadasi’s spiritual connection to the god was unique to herself and her peers. She not only felt devotion to a higher being, but she also realized the emotions that naturally accompany the romance between a woman and her lover – attraction, jealousy, and the like. This performance illustrates the spiritual and physical state of the devadasi through an examination of the content of her dances.

Workshops
Workshops include lecture with digital slide presentation, dance demonstrations and performance, discussion, and group exercises.

Basics of Bharatha Natyam
This workshop provides the A to Z of Bharatha Natyam, a classical dance of south India, for beginners. It includes a brief synopsis of the dance’s history and its context in India, along with demonstrations, discussions, and activities introducing the audience to nritta (pure movement), mudra (hand gesture) and abhinaya (facial expression).

Bharatha Natyam: Beginning to End, and Beginning Again
The religious and political events of the last five hundred years in India’s history influenced the evolution of Bharatha Natyam. The incipient form of the dance, known as Sadir Attam, flourished around the 16th century under the rule of the Mahratta dynasty in Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. Likewise, the dance shifted underground and practically disappeared as a result of colonial rule in the 18th century. In the last century, Bharatha Natyam has experienced a re-birth. This workshop traces Bharatha Natyam’s half-millennium history, illustrating the changes that took place in the dance and the dancer as a result of India’s historical events.

Rasa and the Indian Philosophy of Aesthetics
The aim of all Indian art is to produce aesthetic enjoyment or rasa in the spectator. According to the Natya Sastra, the Indian text of dance and drama dating back to approximately 200 B.C., a dancer must prepare herself mentally and then employ certain techniques in order to succeed in producing rasa. This workshop focuses on the philosophical foundation of dance, mapping interpretations of Indian aesthetic principles and then illustrating the techniques that dancers use to ‘succeed’ in their art form.

Vibrations from India
Indian sculpture and dance are fundamentally related. A medieval sculptor most likely learned dance in order to successfully capture movement and facial expression in stone. This workshop illustrates how visual and performing art forms work hand in hand, comparing specific dance sculptures from temple sites in India to postures choreographed in Indian dance pieces today. Discussions and activities will allow audience members to apply their greater understanding of Indian sculpture in comprehending the dancer’s movements.

Scheduling
To schedule a lecture, performance or workshop, please contact Vani through email at vani@alumni.upenn.edu, or phone at 770-826-1106. Vani is not limited to the programming listed above and would be happy to construct a program according to the institution or organization’s individual needs. Honoraria are structured on a per hour basis and differ by circumstance. Travel costs to and from venues outside of Boston must be provided.