Dr Swarnamalya Ganesh is a combination of a performer with over 35 years of experience, a scholar of dance history as well as a trained academician in art practice and sociology. She wrote her PhD dissertation on Research and Reconstruction of lost dance repertories of Early modern South India (Nayak Period). In a pioneering effort she studied in-depth the history and sources involved in the lost performing traditions to reconstruct them. From The Attic is a performance- lecture- exhibition series based on her research. From collaborations with artistes of various genres to reflecting the multi cultural historicity of dance and music in South India, FTA stands as a unique voice that speaks of inclusivity and plurality as inherent values of performing traditions. Jakkini, Sivalila, Gondhali, Perani are some of her reconstructed repertoires widely appreciated.
Her further research interests include Sadir as the subaltern form of Bharatanatyam through gender, culture, society, stigma and political movements. Her first book was titled Nammai Marandarai Naam Marakkamattom (Tamil), based on her very successful stage production of the same title, from Silappadikaram from the POV of Madhavi, the danseuse. She researched to bring to light the history of repertoires in early 20th century Madras, under her production Dancing in the Parlour. Her more recent production Choreographing Society – a tryst with destiny raises critical questions around inherent inequalities; identities, stigma and the legal frame striving to relieve democracy from it. As a writer and thinker, some of her eminent contributions to critical theories on performance history call for interrogation of post colonial scholarship through her on-going project Decolonising dance history, where she develops new and experimental methods of writing performance histories; Decolonising Dance History Project, Notions of Classical in Bharatanatyam, Sex and Gender in Performance, Mired in Dravidian Politics, Womanity, Daughters of Pandanallur – the other story.
In her professorial capacity she has designed and taught courses such as Past Performing Practices, Art as History, Women in Performance, Literature and Media, that cover archival writing practices and performance in the study of the body and culture as a lived experience. Her more recent addition has been a workshop-style course on ditties and dances of folk and tribal cultures from across the world, titled Or Muf Leh. She is also a sought-after speaker on topics pertaining to Education, Art and Culture.
As a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow for Academic and Professional Excellence, Dr Swarnamalya Ganesh went to UCLA to teach and pursue post-doctoral research. She is trained in Indian and Middle Eastern music, epigraphy, history and archaeology. She has received prestigious awards and fellowships for her contributions, including the Krea Faculty Research Fellowship for 20-21. She is also the Director of Ranga Mandira Academy of World Dance/Performance and Indic Studies, which works at providing education in Performing Arts. Ranga Mandira runs a community radio for the arts and also creates a platform for sustainable development for the hereditary artiste communities. She has served as a Visiting Faculty at SASTRA University, Madras University, and a Guest Faculty to Ashoka University, Bridgewater State University (Boston), and Flame University in India.
Swarnamalya’s work intervenes as a historiographical study of extant literatures and commentaries, orientalist texts and socio political narratology of performing arts. Both roots and routes that upend collectives, stigma, notions of purity, discrimination and exclusion, particularly with regards to women and nation-state, are her research interests.
1) Kshetrayya and the legacy of erasing women’s voices from erotic poetry, The News Minute, Feb 2020, Chennai
2) Whose aesthetic is it anyway? Why classical arts must become more inclusive, The News Minute, April 2019, Chennai
3) Oxford Handbook for Indian Dance: Transnational Routes.; published by Oxford University Press; 2020 (Forthcoming)
4) Nammai Marandarai Naam Marakkamattom. Dr.Swarnamalya Ganesh.; published by South Indian Social History Research Institute (SISHRI); 2014. ISBN 978- 81- 910023-2-4
5) Dance History enshrined and decoded- Bharatanrityam and Bharatanatyam; published by Nartanam Dance Journal,Hyderabad.2016
6) Daughters of Pandanallur – the other story (Dance and history of the 28 Kilometer From Pandanallur to Kumbhakonam), The Kalakshetra Journal Vol IV, 2015
7) Sex and Gender in Performance- Locating Power and Resistance as Discursive arguments, SNC Journal of Intercultural Philosophy, Chennai. Vol 28, Oct 2015; pp 45-54 8.
8) Disrespecting the Devadasi: What the MS Subhalakshmi debate has exposed, The News Minute, Chennai. Jan 2018
9) Writings as operations of en(dis)franchisement, investigating manuscripts and choreographer’s notes from the 16th-19th centuries. Advantages and problems in reconstructing from the papers, as part of “Writing dance and dancing writing conference proceedings of Society of Dance History Scholars, USA
10) Notions of “Classical” in Bharatanatyam; a cultural operation of the classes- arguments of cosmopolitan Margi and indigenous Desi, repertoires of the Nayak period; Kalakshetra Journal, Issue 2. ISBN 978-81-921627- 4-4
11) Mired in Dravidian Politics: Were Tamil Nadu’s Isai Vellalars always socially backward?, The News Minute, Chennai. Feb 2016
12) Womanity — selfhood and tenacity as keynotes of Sangam women published essay as part of “Voyages of the body and soul, selected female icons of India and beyond”; Ed by Ketu Katrak & Anita Ratnam, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
13) Past performing practices of the Nayak period as vestibule to today’s Bharatanatyam, The Madras Music Academy Journal; Vol 84, 2013, pp 10-118
14) How the art of the Devadasi is appropriated to create the world of Bharatanatyam, The News Minute, Chennai. Feb 2017
15) What’s In a Name; Sadir and its Arguments, Journal for India International Center, New Delhi, Oct 2015
16) Regular contributor for OJAS-Oriental Journal of Asian Studies, SASTRA University, department of Oriental studies-Peer Reviewed (ISSN 2319-717X)
17) Stripling rogue at the shrine of the neat herd-a review of the Karana panels at the Sarngapani temple, Kumbhakonam-2012 (December), Pp 47-61
18) Presented research paper “Past performing practices of the Nayak period- research and reconstruction” for the C. P. Arts foundation
19) Womanity- Selfhood and Tenacity as keynotes for Sangam women, OJAS, 2013 (March) ISSN 2319-717X
20) Book: Raghunathabhyudayamu- transliteration and translation- a yakshaganam work in Telugu written by King Vijayaraghava Nayaka in the 17th century (forthcoming)
21) Ravana Hatta, Ravana hasta and the Modern Violin, CARVA Academy of Violin, 2010 Rasa theory and Sigmund Freud – a psychological interpretation – Journal of the University of Madras, 150th year special issue, 2008
Editor – the monthly Newsletter for Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India (ABHAI); issues— 25 issues, 2005, 2006
Founder editor of “Tha Dhim”, the journal of the Department of Indian Music, University of Madras, 2007
Submits articles and research papers for academic journals and annals on dance history including for the Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) U.S.A
“Decolonising Dance History” project – Why we must not write a book on Devadasi (alternative ways of writing subaltern history) – PRAXIS, India; Oct 2020.
