Through this page I would like to look at issues of performance, inclusive of dance performance, in museums. Increasingly, performances of dance, story telling events, music concerts and so on have become part of contemporary curatorial practices in the context of museums and gallery exhibitions and related educational activities. Cultural heritage and museum studies cover dance and performance as ‘intangible heritage’.
The paper below was written by me in 2002 and looks at South Asian dance forms in museums, with a focus on London museums, which over the past half a century have been the location of exhibitions and festivals involving displays of South Asian dances. The paper addresses the construct of cultural heritage, how culture is managed and the ways in which this involves South Asian dancers, globally, and locally, in Britain. It also consider the way South Asian dance forms have, in a British context, entered museums (and galleries) as part of educational activities. Through this understated and often undervalued move, they have contributed to eroding more conservative attitudes to dance in general. These low key educational activities have stimulated dancers to produce creative work that breaks boundaries and is vital in bringing about and shaping acceptance of cultural diversity and alternative views of cultural heritage in contemporary Britain.
The paper is only an example outlining a few themes that could be meaningfully explored, cross-culturally, through contributions (comments, papers, questions, images).
South asian dances in museums.pdf
