Bharatanatyam dancing & the South Asian Body

On this episode of Masala Podcast, I chat with Seeta Patel, a renowned classical Bharatanatyam dancer.We explore how traditional Indian dancing and the female body relate to each other. We discuss the origins of the Bharatanatyam dance, which can be traced back to the Devadasis and temple and court traditions. We talk about classical dance and its place in Indian society today.My guest Seeta Patel, winner of innumerable awards and bursaries, has been a judge, mentor and advisor for the first ever BBC Young Dancer Competition. In 2017, Seeta received the Washington S&R Award for her work championing Bharatanatyam in the diaspora, presented her solo classical performance with live music at Sadler’s Wells as part of the prestigious Darbar Festival in November 2017.This has been an exciting year for Seeta with creating larger ensemble works, including the iconic Rite of Spring, being part of the British Council Showcase in Edinburgh with ‘ Not Today’s Yesterday’ and being nominated for ‘Best Stage Production’ at The Asian Media Awards.MORE ABOUT SEETA PATEL:Insta: https://www.instagram.com/seetadances/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/seetadances Website: https://www.seetapatel.co.uk/ The Spotify award-winning Masala Podcast is a show for South Asian womxn, where we talk about all those things that we’re NOT supposed to talk about in our culture. Sex, sexuality, periods, menopause, mental health, shame, sexual harassment and many more taboos.Producer: Hana Walker-Brown Multi-Award-Winning Documentary Maker www.hanawalkerbrown.com  Music Credit: Sunny Robertson @sunnyrobertsonmusic  FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY PLATFORM SOUL SUTRASWebsite: https://soulsutras.co.uk Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Soul_Sutras Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulsutras/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoulSutrasNetwork/ Click here to join the Soul Sutras newsletter:https://soulsutras.us15.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ddd9c3fdfeb58cecbc5d8a6b2&id=99fbec55d9