Gender, Power, and Visibility in Indian Classical Dance : An Ethnography of Women in Malaysia

This book examines the politics of representation involved in Indian classical dance in Malaysia through gender politics, diasporic Indian history, class, caste, religious background, and ethnicity. While it is a rare phenomenon to identify a woman dancer as a star in Malaysia, women claim power and agency through backstage and offstage labour. Offering a multifaceted investigation of labour, power, and visibility within the Malaysian Indian dance circle, this book illuminates how women enact power by performing a wide range of tasks and roles—such as cooks and food servers in the cafeterias of dance institutions, domestic householders involved in taking care of family, dance teachers, dance rehearsal assistants, costume designers, emcees, stage managers, and the organizers and coordinators of dance events. Through critical analysis of women’s roles in dance as an embodied practice, it looks at how dance shapes their collective identities and how dance is reshaped through bodies when traditions evolve across borders, as well as to what extent patriarchy inhibits or informs these women’s efforts. This study, the first of its kind in Malaysia, is built on decades of ethnographic field work. Its goal is to amplify the voices of women and make their labour visible. It will be of interest to researchers in gender studies, transnational feminism, cultural studies, critical dance studies, diasporic studies, and anthropology.