Breaking The Binary: Third-Gender Discrimination In Indian Classical Dance

Abstract

As it is strongly embedded into the spiritual and the cultural traditions, there is a range of gender identities in which Indian classical dance is historically embedded. In ancient readings, temple iconography and mythologies, the non-binary interpretation of gender was not only tolerated, but admired, as it being performed by non-binary actors. Yet, this breadth of mainstream pedagogy and performance became eroded over time by the dogmatic binaries of colonial interventions and post-colonial conservatism.

Today, LGBTQ+ dancers, especially those that self-identify as third genders, experience persistently marginal educational and employment obstacles, both inside educational institutions and on stages. That is not true of the battles making a repossession of space by a group of artists who have been waiting, definitive and combative.

The present paper explores the sources of gendered fluidity in Indian classical dance, reports about third-gender dancers and a new policy agenda, pedagogical practice, and discourses. Going back to its hugging origins, Indian classical dance can break the threshold set on it and reclaim its mission and aim to mean a depiction of universal expression.