Pedagogy

My pedagogy situates performance within the broader context of culture. I focus on the myriad ways culture is performed and how performative expressions embody cultural values. In addition to examining the colonial legacies of performance, I use the study of performance history as a tool for reflecting on South Asian historiography. I encourage the study of techniques from classical treatises and contemporary performance theory, which enable students to critically analyze cultural practices. Incorporating a variety of learning formats such as video and film, practical workshops, creative projects and presentations, and written assignments, my training cultivates creative cognitive skills. My ideology emphasizes alternative and interesting ways to assimilate knowledge, prepares students to move with conscious and critical engagement, and use training outside of the class to be empathetic and socially responsible citizens.

The South Asian Performance course at the University of Texas, Austin, highlighted to a diverse diasporic populace, the postcolonial development of indigenous practices. I helped students recognize and honor how performance aesthetics animated and enabled a perceptive understanding of India beyond historical stereotypes and essentialization in the West. My classes fostered collective cultural imaginings in respectful and inclusive ways. Through assignments, students reflected on performance as a productive opening to embody diasporic belonging.

As a teacher appointed by the state in India, I partnered with innovative and community service education initiatives in schools. Catering to students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, including elite, middle-class, and working-class families, I facilitated embodied meaning-making. I trained teachers, and advocated school management for the integration of performance arts into contemporary pedagogy.

In my private training academy, I adopted the traditional guru-sishya parampara method to teach the classical language. The narrative format and technique helped students reflect on and learn cultural legends and myths and find independent ways to engage with performance as storytellers and choreographers.