The Archer in the Celestial Court

Bharatanatyam is often called the dance of the cosmic god Nataraja in common parlance, but a deeper look into history of the making of Bharatanatyam shows this narrative was engineered to erase the courtly origins of the dance form.

Nrithya Pillai’s dance is about centering these erased hereditary histories—something she is a part of on account of her identity as being from these families whose performance was criminalised. The most common feature of “hereditary dance” is that the songs are themed around love, and if there is one mythological figure who occupied a significant place in Bharatanatyam repertoire it was the God of Desire—Manmatha, Maaran, Kama, Madhana.

This performance will showcase pieces from the hereditary repertoire that bring focus onto the themes of love, and the poetic beauty of the imagery of how Manmatha is portrayed in these love songs.