Somaesthetics and Dance

This paper performs a Somaesthetic evaluation of Kundalini Pattu: A Dance-Yoga, a dance performance portraying the spirit of Kundalini as creation of life and life forces after death. The discussion laid out in three sections uses Shusterman’s philosophy of Analytic, Pragmatic and Practical somaesthetics to evaluate the two performances of this choreography, one featuring Guru Reshmi Narayanan and the other her students. The study attempts to establish the disciplining of the soma as a necessary condition for the attainment of aesthetic perfection in Bharatanatyam, the South Indian classical dance tradition.