The different facets of dancing in 'Dance Like a Man' by Mahesh Dattani

Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, University of Burdwan, language: English, abstract: Dattani's drama 'Dance Like a Man', first staged in 1989, dramatizes 'dance' with its many implicit implications - dance as profession, dance as pain, dance as suffering, dance as shelter, dance as ego-formation, dance as rhythm of life, dance as passion, dance as mission, dance as vision and finally, dance as strong maker of gender identity; in addition, it is a reflector of the cultural location of India, more precisely, culturally rich Indianness. The play can be read as a configuration of the characteristic grip of human identity that strongly interfaces the elements of identical autonomy and autonomous identity.

Dr Ankur Konar is an Assistant Professor in English, Sir Rashbehari Ghosh mahavidyalaya, University of Burdwan. He can be reached at ankrknr@gmail.com. He has authored Cultural Poetics: Poetry, Society, Theory (2012) and Drama, Dattani, Discourse (2013).