Playing dance and dancing music: The work of intimacy in kathak

Abstract

Musicians and dancers work in their study, practice and performance of cultural forms. They play, move, twist, turn, clap, strum, nod, smile, wave and strike in lessons, rehearsal and performance. This chapter examines the work that goes into the performance of kathak (north Indian classical) dance. I here explore how tabla musicians and kathak dancers collaborate in a particular tradition of kathak to perform rhythmic compositions. They work to construct and maintain a relationship onstage, which they express to their audience. This relationship is characterized by an intimacy that they show through gestures - head nods, smiles, waves, exclamations and even short snippets of conversation. These and other gestures comprise the work of intimacy in the practice of kathak dance, which I argue is the most important part of this particular aesthetic in the tradition of kathak. Musicians and dancers in rehearsal for this kind of performance may not necessarily run through the compositions they intend to perform, but instead, practice how they create and navigate this constructed intimacy. Audiences engage with this work done between performers to produce intimacy as a constitutive part of the tradition itself.