Written by: Saran Y.
Dance is an embodiment of a particular time, place and culture (Yodh, 1988). Like other cultural institutions that reproduce and safeguard culture, the traditional dance(s) of a cultural group serves as the essence of the group’s culture and history.
The power of dance as a powerful tool in mesmerizing the masses and strengthening culture has been understood by regimes and revolutionists around the world who have used dance to further their ideologies. During the era of colonialization, many native dances were perceived as a threat to the hegemony of the colonists, that they were out rightly banned. While they had many reasons for this, one reason was colonizers feared that through dance, the people would become more unified, which would grant the people power (Reed, 1998). During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, ballet dancing was introduced as a way of representing the inclusion of gender equality through movement. The Cuban Government chose the rumba dance as their national dance because it was viewed as being a dance that would help further socialist and egalitarian ideals (the rumba was a dance practiced by the “lower-class and dark skinned Cuban workers”). Dance is powerful in shaping ethnic identity, and furthering ideologies, and history has shown us how it has been utilized in shaping culture.
For post colonial nations, emphasizing and investing in nurturing their native dance was an important task for native dances served as a living emblem of their pre-colonial past. If dance is an embodiment of and cultural heritage and history, then preserving it would ensure the continual growth of a particular culture’s heritage.
In Sri-Lanka, this concept was understood, and thus the use of dance in the development of separate ethnic identities was an area of focus. The Sri-Lankan government sponsored the development of the Kandyan dance through seminars, historical studies and programs in order to reinforce the Sinhala cultural heritage through the Kandyan dance (Reed, 1998). They viewed bharatha natyam as the oppositional category of dance for it was a traditional dance practiced by the Tamil people, and sought to emphasize their culture by nurturing their traditional Kandyan dance.
Together, these three components strengthen the Tamil language and culture in their particular uses. Traditional Tamil dances utilize these three tenants which contribute to the preservation of culture. In Tamil dances, including bharatha natyam, kaavadi aatam, silambu attam and villu paatu, through movement, costume, music and incorporative narrative storytelling, the Tamil cultural history is represented, reinforced and reproduced. By using the culture’s current events and folk stories in dance narrative the information is being preserved, and passed down.
The powerful relationship dance has in preserving culture and history cannot be denied. Dance is vital to culture and history, and if nurtured can serve to preserve, protect and reinforce our Tamil culture and identity.
References:
Medha Yodh, “Dance and Identity,” The Massachusetts Review 29 (1988) 4.
Susan A. Reed, “The Politics and Poetics of Dance,” Annual Review of Anthropology. 27 (1998): 503.
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