Performing for the gods? Dance and embodied ritual in British Hindu temples

Recent ethnographic work in Tamil Hindu temples in London has revealed a new display of performed religious expression that ranges from the bodily movements of the priests during ritual to trance dance and classical Bharatanatyam dance performance. This article examines the performativity of such events, looking at their manifestations through the lens of both anthropological theory and that of performance studies. It considers how such embodied practices are ‘performances of faith’, and how this is manifest through the concepts of rasa and darshan, as found in Hindu ritual. The production and confirmation of a specific British Tamil Hindu identity through such performativity is discussed.