Goethe Scenes

Social Dance

Dance in India has long detached itself from religion, caste and folk tradition. Nonetheless, dance performance is still based on the dancers’ physical vocabulary, which is based on the motions of classical dance. This makes it all the more challenging for contemporary dance in India, to which the Goethe-Institut has dedicated the web journal Art & the City , to adopt up-to-date social topics. For example in her choreography Hema Bharathy Palani, a 29-year old dancer from Bangalore, breaks the silence over sexual abuse of children. After reading Bitter Chocolate, a book by journalist Pinky Virani about child abuse in India, she met with victims many times for two years. She observed their body language and now uses it in a 20-minute dance.