/ This material may be protected by - Copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) -..^----.-.. Visual Anthropology, 17: 1-17, 2004 Copyright 0Taylor & Francis,Inc. Routledge ISSM-0894-9468 printf1545-5920 online TaylorhF~ancls Croup DOI: l0.l080/08~49460490273988 Dance, Pleasure and Indian Women as Multisensorial Subjects Pallabi Chakravorty This article uses an experiential approach to analyze the embodied aesthetics of classical Indian dance. This approach is fundamentally different from the dominant Western epistemologies of visual analysis of cognition and perception. I look at the body in riaz (dance practice) to analyze the integration of mind and body through , emotion or pleasure as explained in the Indian theory of rasa. I show how cultural memory is evoked through bodily practices which, in the context of Kathak (a clas- 1 sical dance in north and east India), is intimately linked to the Hindu narrative of / Krishna lila. This article also explains how this embodied experience molds gendered , cultural identity through riaz and rasa. IDENTITIES EMBODIED Several pairs of eyes are fixed on the diminutive figure sitting cross-legged on the scarlet divan: she extends her right arm and moves her wrist very gently while reciting the mnemonic rhythm fa thei thei tat. Her heavily kohled eyes graze her arm, pausing momentarily on her wrist before moving up. Her students, mostly young women, face her in a semicircle. After a moment's observation they extend their right arms in front like their guru and break into rapid feet stomping in unison. The sound of tabla (Indian drums), accompanied by the melodic cycle of a harmonium (a reed instrument) and the tinkling of ghungrus bells that the dancers tie around their feet), drown the cacophony of traffic and street noise outside. As the crescendo of the music rises, the bodies hum in repeated circles-coming to sudden stillness that marks the beginning of the melodic cycle that is Sam. I am in Bandana Sen's classroom, located in Bhabanipur, one of the busiest sections of Calcutta (recently renamed Kolkata) metropolis, where she has been teaching Kathak for the last 40 years. In this article I analyze the performance of Kathak (a popular classical dance in North and East India) not in terms of a particular performance or a finished artistic product, but in terms of the process by which women's identities are embodied PALLABI CHATSWVORTY is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College. She received her Ph.D. in Visual Anthropology from Temple University. Her research interests include dance anthropology, the intersection of politics, aesthetics, and cul- tural identity, and the processes of globalization. She is a practitioner of Kathak dance and the artistic director and founder of "Courtyard Dancers." E-mail: pchakral@swarthmore.edu