Emerging Women’s Dance Pedagogy in Purulia Chhau : An Interview with Mousumi Choudhury

Purulia Chhau is a martial arts-based masked dance tradition from West Bengal, India, historically practiced exclusively by men and transmitted through community-based and hereditary systems. Following UNESCO’s recognition of Chhau as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010, the form entered new circuits of visibility, institutional support, and cultural circulation. While this recognition did not dismantle entrenched patriarchal structures, it created fragile and contested openings through which women began to access training, performance, and pedagogical authority. This article examines these shifts through an interview-based study with Mousumi Choudhury, one of the pioneering female performers and teachers of Purulia Chhau. Situating her artistic and pedagogical journey within broader processes of heritage-making and dance institutionalization, the article explores how women navigate tensions between lineage-based knowledge and formal academic validation. Drawing on feminist pedagogical perspectives, it highlights how embodied practice becomes a site for reconfiguring gendered hierarchies in dance education.