Rodin and the Dance of Shiva

In 1913, photos of the Nataraja bronze from the Chennai Museum inspired Auguste Rodin’s text “The Dance of Shiva”. Written at the end of his life, this vision of Shiva, “Lord of actor-dancers”, revealed the underlying links between Rodin’s dance sculptures (1910), the Cambodian dancer drawings, his private collection of antique Venus and Buddha sculptures and wood carvings from India. Through his androgynous vision of Shiva the cosmic dancer, Rodin invites us not only to a new reading of his work but also opens the door to a new vision of Indian theatre and dance. The connections that he suggests between sculpture, poetry, dance, theatre, music, photography and architecture have a particular contemporary resonance.In this book historian, artists, poets, both French and Indian, bring us a new international vision of Rodin’s work.

Katia Legeret-manochhaya

Katia Légeret-Manochhaya is Professor of Aesthetics and Art Theory in the Department of Theatre at Paris 8 University, France and Director of the Laboratory of researches EA1573/EDESTA-Aesthetics, Sciences and Technologies of the Arts. Her main field of research comprises the twentieth-century European playwrights, stage directors and choreographers inspired by Asian performing arts, specifically from India. She is the author of many articles and books about Indian dances and theatre, including Les 108 pas du dieu Siva: Danse sacrée de l’Inde, Manuel traditionnel du Bharata-Nâtyam: Le danseur cosmographe and Danse contemporaine et theatre indien un nouvel art? She is also a professional artist in Bharatanatyam style and has an international career, starting at Chennai with Swarnamukhi (Tamil Nadu s State Artist) and, since 1986, she interprets Natyacharya K. Muralidhar Rao’s repertories (Karnataka, Pandanallur style). “Shiva-Rodin” (2013) and “Panchatantra/La Fontaine” (2010-2015) are among her stage creations with her company.