2019年度 MINDAS「音楽・芸能」班第1回研究会

Eye contact and Social Stigma in Indian Performing arts:
The Case of Lāvaṇī dancer in Maharashtra, India

Reiko IIDA (Kyoto University)

This study examined the role of the glance within Indian performing arts. Many Indian performing arts transformed their bodily expressions and ‘de-sexualized’ their choreography to conform to social limitations prevailing in the early 1900s. Most noticeably, they controlled and abolished direct eye contact with audience members during performances. This proscription of eye contact deterred direct exchange of glances with the audience, which supposedly awakened ‘secular’ behaviour and reduced the ’elegance’ of the performing arts. Reconstruction of the ‘authentic’ Indian classical performing arts was attempted through abandonment of the gaze/glance. However, the author’s research of a popular performing art known as lāvaṇī (a form of dance) in Maharashtra, India has indicated that the sense of the glance persists as an undeniable characteristic of the performance. Attractiveness of lāvaṇī as a part of popular culture necessitates a glance and an audience–dancer connection created through glancing. Every aspect of a lāvaṇī dance rests on seeing: the eye navigates the flow of the performance. The eyes determine how to move to the next body motion, while capturing the excitement or response of the audience. The eye also relates the whole system of the stage to one’s own body and the bodies of others. A lāvaṇī performance is best accomplished at the nexus between the dancer’s body, the audience and the stage, as mediated through eyesight (nazar). In that sense, the nazar is an issue of eye contact and glances, but also one of captivating and binding all these disparate dimensions of a theatre.

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Female Performers in Pakistan – Singers, Actors and Dancers

Murayama Kazuyuki (Wako University)

Pakistan is a country in which the Islamic policy as a national religion and traditional secular performing arts are delicately balanced, particularly in matters related to music and dance. In Pakistan, music and dance are not "Forbidden" as Haram or "Allowed" as Halal depending strictly on the description in the Qur'an. Rather, they are subject to interpretation of legal schools, including some differences in interpretation. They still occupy the gray zone of Makrukh “things that should be repelled,” which is an intermediate classification. In Pakistani society, women are welcomed, both personally and customarily, as singers, actors, dancers, and dramatic performers for an unspecified public on the stage. Where are female entertainers found in movies?

In this presentation, we introduce a representative female singer in Pakistan in a TV program and video footage shot by the presenter to show the actual circumstances of female entertainers from India who might be in different situations. Furthermore, we verified their background and achievements as singers. As an example, the author introduces Abida Parveen, a classical folk musician who studied classical vocal music and who is active as a top female singer in Pakistan. Also introduced is Zarsanga, a shepherd who also reigned as a top female singer in the folk song of the ethnic language Pashto.

Furthermore, as shown in the videos posted on SNS, it is impossible to commercialize DVDs for commercial purposes, as verified by the dance scene with men as female dancers, and by the singing scene with musical instrument accompaniment.

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