Looking into the Mirror: Affective Dance Objects in the Performances of Indian Dancer Ram Gopal

The article begins with a detailed description of a brief and rare film clip of Indian dancer Ram Gopal applying his black kājal eyeliner in front of the mirror in his dressing room before a performance, giving us an intimate glimpse into a dancer’s essential and careful preparation. Material objects related to dance performance such as make-up, mirrors and costumes are often essential to the presentation of Indian dance, especially in that historical period, but are often overlooked as significant artefacts or objects of dance. In considering this short clip of preparatory make-up, I argue how the materiality of cosmetic stage make-up together with dramatic stage costumes (in particular headdresses) and other material objects assist the process of alteration from dancer into a Hindu deity (Śiva) or mythological character on stage. I examine the process of making up, asking how it might manipulate what comes to be seen on stage and what affect is created through such a process. This article takes an imaginative look at the affective register of selected dance objects and their power to create transformation, drawing on theoretical evidence from philosophy and psychology relating to mirror image and the aesthetics of making up and the use of mirrors in early Indian art.