IFA@Bangalore: Panel Discussion on Gender & Performance | Christ University | January 12, 2016

Join us for an exciting panel discussion on gender and performance, by IFA grantees Sharanya Ramprakash, a theatre artist and scholar, Deepti Priya Mehrotra, with IFA Programme Executive Sumana Chandrashekar, a ghatam player and carnatic music vocalist – in a session moderated by Arundhati Ghosh, the Executive Director of IFA.

The panel will be followed by a rendition of Rendu Ghatam, a performance by Sumana Chandrashekar. Rendu Ghatam was devised with a grant from the Sandbox Collective and Goethe Institut, Bangalore, under their 'Gender Bender' initiative.

India Foundation for the Arts
at
Protean Frames: International Conference on Contemporary Discourses of Feminism
January 12, 2016
Christ University, Hosur Road, Bangalore
Contact: +91 804012 9100 / 9600,
+91 804012 9281 / 9282 / 9283 / 9284 / 9285 

About the Discussion
This session will explore the intersections of gender and performance through the examination of women inNautanki, Yakshagana and Carnatic music. Politics of the body and how the female body relates to, reflects, subverts, and remakes social bodies through creating, and engaging in performance will be the main focus of the panel. The session will engage in an in-depth discussion on approaching the feminist idiom for contemporary performing arts, by studying the conditions of actual productions, their social and cultural contexts, engagement with audiences, conditions of the market for such performances, and the individual and collective life experiences of the women performers. The three panelists enter this debate from their positions as scholars and practitioners, speaking about their challenges, setbacks, failures, and the conflicts between their personal and artistic, private and public lives.

About the Speakers
Deepti is a political scientist and writer with considerable work on gender and performance.
Sharanya is a theatre practitioner, actor, director who has been working with Yakshagana. Her recent production looks at women's roles and the 'streevesha' in Yakshagana.
Sumana is a vocalist of Carnatic music and a ghatam player. Her recent work looks at the journeys of three women - the instrument maker, the teacher and the student and explores notions of gender embodied in the stories and sounds of the ghatam.
Arundhati is the Executive Director at India Foundation for the Arts.

Photo Courtesy for Sumana Chandrashekar's photograph: Rajkumar Rajak.