Bodies and bordersnandini sikandbodies and borders: The Odissi costume controversy

Abstract

In this chapter, I examine an apparel-related incident in the context of a dance performance that reveals overdetermined categories of tradition, history and culture as they relate to the female body in Odissi2 dance. I focus on an event that took place in 2005 that was referred to on the dance website Narthaki both as the “costume controversy” and as the “storm in a teacup.”3 Kuala Lumpur-based dance company Sutra Dance Theatre was touring India, and the female dancers performed the entire concert without an odhni (which means ‘covering,’ and in this case a piece of fabric that crosses over the chest, covering the front of the blouse). Sutra Dance Theatre came under intense scrutiny for what some deemed as both inappropriate and inauthentic costuming.