Abstract:
Following Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, some scholars ask, can the
subaltern dance? It is a question worth asking to understand the privilege of
dancers. In dominant archives, the dances of the subalterns are not recorded well.
Even if they are recorded, they are recorded from an elite point of view. However,
it is not enough to study subaltern dance as long as it includes only visual
analyses. Therefore, bringing subaltern dancers to the centre of attention is not
enough. Drawing on dance studies written in Sinhala and the work of Sri Lankan
writers who researched on dance performed by the Sinhala people, I demonstrate
the limitation of some of their approaches. In historical or anthropological
approaches to dance studies, scholars analyse how dancers look – the visual
aspect, but are rarely concerned about how dancers feel – the felt aspect. This
paper examines how Eurocentric methodologies dominated dance and theatre
studies and discarded indigenous knowledge. Performers’ sensory and felt
dimensions have been ignored and devalued due to the dominance of textual and
visual culture and the methods of analysis that stem from them. Eurocentric
approaches to knowledge have historically privileged the mind – thinking – over
the body – feeling. Therefore, in research, visual observations and positivist
methods have been highlighted. Embodied experiences and feelings have been
neglected and discarded as invalid knowledge. In this paper, I argue quite the
opposite. I argue that I exist as a dancer because I feel and think. Therefore, as a
researcher, I use my embodied experience, including feelings, to interpret
performance history. As a method, I suggest using the sensory (smell, taste, sight,
sounds, touch) in performing arts research.
