Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict: Practicing Bharata Natyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka

By Ahalya Satkunaratnam

Book Overview

A performance-ethnographic examination of dance and civil war in Sri Lanka

Winner of The de la Torre Bueno(R) First Book Award (2021)

Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict is a groundbreaking ethnographic examination of dance practice in Colombo, Sri Lanka, during the civil war (1983-2009). It is the first book of scholarship on bharata natyam (a classical dance originating in India) in Sri Lanka, and the first on the role of this dance in the country's war. Focusing on women dancers, Ahalya Satkunaratnam shows how they navigated conditions of conflict and a neoliberal, global economy, resisted nationalism and militarism, and advocated for peace. Her interdisciplinary methodology combines historical analysis, methods of dance studies, and dance ethnography.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0819578908
• ISBN13: 9780819578907
• Release Date: April 2020
• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up