Contemporising the past: envisaging the future Refereed proceedings of the 2014 World Dance Alliance Global Summit 1 Disciplined creativity Aadya Kaktikar Shiv Nadar University, India aadya.kaktikar@snu.edu.in Abstract Traditional Indian dances with highly codiied performance techniques are often understood as immutable within a world where luidity and lux constantly challenge our notions of stable identities and unchanging traditions. Why is it then that in spite of the severely disciplining nature of dance training, dancers do not simply repeat what they are conditioned to do? If agency is dependent upon social structures and power matrices, why does innovation, deviation, resistance and confrontation occur changing scripts and evolving new meanings of what is danced within tradition? This paper accesses traditional Indian dance pedagogies through the kinetic sensorium, highlighting the bodily experience that the traditional dance forms provide. My own training in Odissi, challenges the notion of creativity as a product. It leads to an understanding of creativity and the role that discipline plays in its expression which is culture speciic, yet may ind universal applicability. Keywords: creativity, discipline, kinaesthesia, Indian classical dance, pedagogy Introduction Five pairs of feet slap the ground repeatedly echoing the rhythm of the percussion, hands and torsos moving in unison. Under the strict and usually disapproving eye of the Guru 1 , these young bodies labour to embody the nuances of an Indian classical dance style. Hour after hour, year after year, these students fastidiously repeat the same exercises, the same steps in the same sequence in pursuit of the unattainable aim of anga shuddhi. Literally translated, anga shuddhi means to purify the body. This purity is achieved by the ability of the dancer to clearly execute complex rhythmic structures and lucidly articulate subtle philosophical ideas through hand gestures and facial expressions woven within a complex grammatical structure. It is not surprising therefore that in a world where ‘luidity and lux have become signiicant metaphors for the way we deine our cultures and our world’ (Shapiro, 2008, p. 253), where our notion of stable identities and unchanging traditions is constantly challenged, Indian classical dance forms are often understood as unchanging, continuous, immutable and rigid. These forms, with their highly codiied techniques, rigorous and long training periods (at least ten to ifteen years to qualify as an amateur dancer), raise questions of universal applicability, creative space, expression of individuality and agency, and the relevance of discipline and rigor. Why is it then, that in spite of severely restrictive and disciplining nature of dance training, no two students of a Guru dance alike, or like an identical copy of the Guru? Why is it that they do not simply repeat what they are conditioned to do? If agency is dependent upon social structures and power matrices, why does innovation, deviation, resistance and confrontation occur, changing scripts and evolving new meanings of what is danced within tradition? This paper asserts that accessing