Performing Indian Modern Dance in Cold War China

The China Studies Centre supports research on China at The University of Sydney by bringing together researchers on China from across faculties and disciplines, enabling international academic collaboration with researchers from China and other countries, and being an informed voice in Australia's public China discourse.

China Studies Centre

Join Professor Emily Wilcox for a research seminar on Indian Modern Dance in Cold War China

Room 708, Level 7 Jane Foss Russell Building (G02)

Talks in Chinese Humanities

"Talks in Chinese Humanities" is co-presented by the China Studies Centre, the Discipline of Chinese Studies and the Australian Society for Asian Humanities at the University of Sydney and the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture at UNSW.

Hybrid Event | Sydney China Distinguished Fellow Presents X Talks in Chinese HumanitiesPerforming Indian Modern Dance in Cold War China: Uday Shankar Dance Company’s 1957 China TourUday Shankar’s 1957 tour in China is an important case study for ‘inter-Asia’ dance studies and the history of inter-Asia dance exchange during the Cold War. One of modern India’s most famous dance artists, Uday Shankar developed a new style of Indian modern dance and, as early as the late 1930s, the first systematic education system for Indian modern dance. Most scholarship on Shankar's international tours and efforts to translate Indian dance abroad focus on his tours in Europe and the United States during the 1930s. This paper turns to the previously unexplored links between Shankar and dance developments in 1950s China. Shankar's connections to the Chinese dance world preceded his company's 1957 tour, through his connections to Tagore, the Elmhirsts, and Dartington Hall, as well as his friendship with Dai Ailian, one of the founding figures of Chinese dance and professional dance education in China. Shankar developed a transregional, transnational, and intercultural approach to Indian dance, and he also experimented with dance shadow play and dance film, creating works that spanned religious themes as well as contemporary social life. This paper reconstructs Shankar's 1957 tour in China based on previously unexamined Chinese-language media texts, performance programs, and visual documents. Contrasting with how Shankar was received in the West as a symbol of Indian dance tradition, it demonstrates that Chinese dance critics appreciated Shankar's role as a dance innovator and his contribution to a distinct form of Asian dance modernism.About the speakerEmily Wilcox is Margaret Hamilton Professor of Chinese Studies at William &amp; Mary, a 2024-25 Guggenheim Fellow in Dance Studies, and a 2025 Sydney China Fellow. She is the author, editor, or translator of six books: Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy and its Chinese translation; Corporeal Politics: Dancing East Asia; Inter-Asia in Motion: Dance as Method; Teaching Film from the People’s Republic of China; and Creating With Roots: Contemporary Chinese National Folk Dance Choreography. Wilcox is co-creator of the University of Michigan Chinese Dance Collection and director of the oral history project Planting Seeds: ADF and Modern Dance in China. She leads the Asian and Asian Diaspora Dance Studies Working Group in the Dance Studies Association and is incoming Chair of the East and Inner Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies.The <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/research/our-research/centres/china-studies-centre/fellowships.html" title="https://www.sydney.edu.au/research/our-research/centres/china-studies-centre/fellowships.html" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sydney China Distinguished Fellowship</a> is enabled by the acuity of vision and generosity of Mr James Lee, a University of Sydney alumnus now based in Hong Kong. The fellowship is managed by the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/schools/school-of-languages-and-cultures/chinese-studies.html#scdf" title="https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/schools/school-of-languages-and-cultures/chinese-studies.html#scdf" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Discipline of Chinese Studies</a> in the School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/our-research/centres-institutes-and-groups/china-studies-centre.html" title="https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/our-research/centres-institutes-and-groups/china-studies-centre.html" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">China Studies Centre</a> at the University of Sydney. This event is presented as part of Talks in Chinese Humanities with the Australian Society for Asian Humanities at the University of Sydney.

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