| Summary: | In her book, "Indian Classical dance", Kapila
Vatsyayan describes dance as the highest order of spiritual
discipline, the enactment of which is symbolic of a
ritual sacrifice of one's being to a transcendental order.
The Natya-Shashtra, a treatise on drama and dance, reveals
the status of the performing arts as equal to prayer
and sacrificial rites in the pursuit of moksha, the release
form cycles of rebirth. Both dance and dancer function
as a vehicle for divine invocation and are mirrored in
the architectural surroundings.
To investigate this connection between dance and place,
it is imperative to understand the mythical origins of
architecture and temple dance. the Hindu philosophy
of the cosmic man and its religious relationship with
the Dravidian architecture of Tamil Nadu is the starting
point of the discussion of a south Indian aesthetic.
The Vastu-purusha mandala is a philosophical diagram that provides a foundation for Hindu aesthetics, linking
physical distance, religious position and universal
scale in both time and space. Used as an architectural
diagram, it becomes a mediator between the human
body and the cosmos. The temple, as a setting for dance
performances, and constructed based on the mandala,
shares this quality of immersing its participants into a
multi-sensory spatial experience.
However, while the link between architecture and
dance culture was explicit up to the 18th century, it is
less compelling in the context of modern south Indian
architecture. With an increasingly unstable political
landscape during the 20th century, architectural growth
in south India during this period is almost stagnant.
Unfortunately, this creates a break in the continuity and
comparative evolution of dance and architecture, leading
to the fragmentation and abstraction of dance in its
modern form.
South Indian dance has since transformed into a prominent
cultural symbol and various incarnations of the
dancer have become the isolated yet important link,
between tradition and modernity. As an evolving living
embodiment of contemporary culture and identity,
her transformation from Devadasi, to an icon of nationalism,
to a choreographer of 'high art' provides the
foundation for the reintegration of architecture in the
cultural fabric. The culmination of this research aims
to reinstate the importance of architecture as a cultural
nexus in order to restring a fragmented dance, community
and cultural identity.
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