Music Dance and Sexuality

The Editorial: Music, Dance and Sexuality
In Plainspeak English Audit In Plainspeak English Audit 100% 10 Painting of a woman playing sitar, sitting on a bench in a park. She is wearing an orange saree and a black blouse, and has her hair tied in a low bun. Screen reader support enabled. Painting of a woman playing sitar, sitting on a bench in a park. She is wearing an orange saree and a black blouse, and has her hair tied in a low bun.
The Editorial: Music, Dance and Sexuality

“Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise that I dance like I have diamonds at the…
By TARSHI
January 15, 2015
The Editorial: Music, Dance and Sexuality
Interview: Anita Ratnam
Anita Ratnam in an orange saree doing Bharatnayam outside an old temple.
Interview: Anita Ratnam

In December TARSHI interviewed Anita Ratnam, who is a leading Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer based in Chennai. In her own…
By Shweta Krishnan
January 15, 2015
Interview: Anita Ratnam
Songs of the Caravan…Journey of the Spirit : India’s First Audio Album Sung by Transgender Women
Collage of eight pictures of eight different people. The photos show them in different poses: smiling, singing, or simply posing for a passport photo.
Songs of the Caravan…Journey of the Spirit : India’s First Audio Album Sung by Transgender Women

Music is a universal language. It has no gender. It belongs to everyone. For certain communities’ music has been a…
By Anubhav Gupta
January 15, 2015
Songs of the Caravan…Journey of the Spirit : India’s First Audio Album Sung by Transgender Women
Sita Sings the Blues
An animated figure of Sita, with big kajal-laden eyes, wearing a crown, pink lehnga, and having four hands. She holds a shell, a lotus, and a sudarshan chakra in three hands. The background is watery green.
Sita Sings the Blues

“For every incarnation of Rama, there is a Ramayana”, says AK Ramanujam in his essay ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas’. So, too, there…
By Lekha Sridhar
January 15, 2015
Sita Sings the Blues
“The more you confine me, the more I will spill over”
Back and front cover of the book, "Wild Girls Wicked Words". Blurb and testimonials are written in black on the back cover, and the title of the book is written in bold in black on the front, on a pink background colour.
“The more you confine me, the more I will spill over”

The collection Wild Girls, Wicked Words is an anthology of poetry translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmstrom. The collection contains…
By Vasugi Kailasam
January 1, 2015
“The more you confine me, the more I will spill over”
When Transparency Meets Fluidity, Dance Is Born
Two men dancing on a stage with red flourescent lights. The dance pose shows the man in front turning over his shoulder to kiss the man standing behind him.
When Transparency Meets Fluidity, Dance Is Born

I just celebrated my twenty years in India last October and designed a performance for the occasion: ‘What is dance?’…
By Gilles Chuyen
January 1, 2015
When Transparency Meets Fluidity, Dance Is Born
A Lingering Tingle
A boy performing Bharatnatyam on stage. He wears kajal, and an orange dupatta hung around his neck falls from both sides till his waist. The photo ends at his torso.
A Lingering Tingle

I started learning Bharatanatyam in 1988, when I was six years old. Looking back, it feels like beginning to learn…
By Aniruddan Vasudevan
January 1, 2015
A Lingering Tingle
Reel Review: Memoirs of a Geisha
Poster of the film "Memoirs of Geisha". It focuses on face of a fair South Asian woman with straight hair, blue eyes, wearing red lipstick.
Reel Review: Memoirs of a Geisha

The Hollywood rendition of the Geisha world, with Edward Said’s Orientalism [1] thrown in, reminds us of a simple fact: things…
By Jasmine George
January 1, 2015
Reel Review: Memoirs of a Geisha
Brushstrokes: Desire In Dance
A woman wearing a blue saree and an orange blouse performing Kathak. She is wearing colourful bangles and jewellery on top of her forhead, ears, and neck. She is wearing kajal, a black bindi, and her hair is tied.
Brushstrokes: Desire In Dance

[slideshow_deploy id=’4883′] This series of images captures a few Indian dance forms that have over time told stories of desire….
By Curated Content
January 1, 2015
Brushstrokes: Desire In Dance
Dances of Desire: From Devadasis to Modern Storytellers
A man and a woman perform Kathakali on stage, wearing typical Kathakali costumes of red and white and elaborate headgear. A lamp is lit on the stage. Their makeup and dresses show beautifully in contrast to the darkened stage.
Dances of Desire: From Devadasis to Modern Storytellers

It is not entirely impossible to imagine that classical Indian dance is timeless or that the stories narrated in these…
By Shweta Krishnan
January 1, 2015
Dances of Desire: From Devadasis to Modern Storytellers
सॉन्ग्स ऑफ द कैरवेन: भारत में ट्रान्स्जेंडर लोगों का पहला आडियो एल्बम
Collage of eight pictures of eight different people. The photos show them in different poses: smiling, singing, or simply posing for a passport photo.
सॉन्ग्स ऑफ द कैरवेन: भारत में ट्रान्स्जेंडर लोगों का पहला आडियो एल्बम

संगीत की भाषा सार्वभौमिक है। यह वर्ण, जाति तथा लिंग इत्यादि से भी परे है। संगीत सभी का है। कुछ…
By Anubhav Gupta
January 1, 2015
सॉन्ग्स ऑफ द कैरवेन: भारत में ट्रान्स्जेंडर लोगों का पहला आडियो एल्बम