Dr Ann David

Job Title: Principal Lecturer Qualifications: PhD, MA (Dist), BA (Hons) Telephone: +44 (0)20 8392 3658 Email Address: A.David@roehampton.ac.uk

Short biography

Ann David gained her Ph.D in Dance Ethnography at De Montfort University, Leicester, funded by a full-time three year award from the AHRC. The research focused on two British Hindu communities in Leicester and London, examining their dance practices within a religious context of temple worship and annual festivals. The thesis discussed issues of ethnic, cultural and religious identity, as well as the influence of Bollywood dance on the classical dance forms and their transmission, and the effects of a growing global culture on more local practices.

Having gained a first honours degree in Education, in 1999 she took an MA in Dance Studies at the University of Surrey, gaining a distinction, and went on to pursue her Ph.D at DMU. She is now Principal Lecturer in dance at Roehampton University, as well as working as a Research Fellow on a new international anthropological project examining the religious lives of immigrant groups in London, and funded by the Ford Foundation, USA.(See website at www.surrey.ac.uk/Arts/CRONEM/religious-lives-of-immigrants.htm). Ann has worked as a mentor to Kathak dancer Urja Thakore on her new Arts Council-funded project, Baharan-Spring. She has given papers at many international conferences (in 2006, for example in Romania and in India, in 2007, in Malaysia, North America and Europe)and in 2008 in Europe and Malaysia, and she has published widely in cross-disciplinary journals and dance magazines. She teaches on the MA Dance Cluster and is a supervisor of PhD candidates. She is currently Convener of the BA Dance Studies Programme.

Ann has trained in ballet, folk dance, and contemporary dance styles, as well as the Indian classical styles of Bharatanatyam and Kathak. She has published for many years in the South Asian dance journal, Pulse, and was commissioned to write the Arts Council report on Akademi’s Bharatanatyam Conference, Negotiating Natyam, and their 2009 conference on Bollywood dance, Frame by Frame. She has held a Research Fellowship at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University, where she examined the movement components within Hindu ritual and worship, and has given Research Seminars at Oxford University, as well as Cardiff, Southampton and Surrey Universities. She has also taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses at De Montfort University, Leicester, University of Surrey and Royal Holloway University, London. Her research interests include dance and popular culture; South Asian dance; dance, culture and identity; dance and religion, and dance ethnography and anthropology.

Professional affiliations include membership of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), the Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS), the Congress for Research on Dance (CORD), the Society for Dance Research (SDR), and the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS).

Publications

2010 (forthcoming)'Identities at play:trance and possession practices in diasporic Hindu sites in East London' in Summoning the Spirits:Possession and Invocation in Contemporary Religion , ed. A.Dawson. I.B Tauris.
2010 ‘Negotiating Identity: Dance and Religion in British Hindu Communities’ in Dance Matters. Peforming India , ed. P.Chakravorty, and N.Gupta. London & New Delhi:Routledge: 89-107.
2009 'Performing for the Gods? Dance and embodied ritual in British Hindu Temples' Journal of South Asian Popular Culture, 7,3: 217-231.
2009 'Embodied Migration: Performance Practices of Diasporic Sri Lankan Tamils Communities in London' Journal of Intercultural Studies.
2009 'Gendering the Divine: New forms of feminine Hindu worship' International Journal of Hindu Studies .
2009 'When the Body becomes the Dance: Issues of Space, Place-making and Empowerment in British Hindu Worship' Proceedings of the 25th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology , Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 151-154.
2008 'Local diasporas/global trajectories: new aspects of religious 'performance' in British Tamil Hindu Practice' Performance Research ,13,3: 89-99.
2008 'Religious Dogma or Political Agenda? Bharatanatyam and its Re-emergence in British Tamil Temples'. Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement, 14, 3 (on-line)
2007 ‘Beyond the silver screen: Bollywood and ‘filmi’ dance in the UK’. South Asia Research, 27,1: 5-24.
2007/8 'Migratory Rituals or Classical Dance Forms? Bharatanatyam as a Signifier of Tamil Identity in Diasporic Hindu Communities in Britain'. Proceedings of Annual CORD conference, New York.
2007 'Choreography of the Temple? Questions of Theory and Practice in the Performance of British Hinduism'. Proceedings of the SDHS 30th Annual Conference, Paris: 248-252
2006 ‘When the Body becomes the Dance- the ‘Orientalist’ Gaze and the Idealised Male Dancing Body: Ram Gopal in the UK’. Pulse Journal: 13-15.
2006 'Dancing in the Deities' Space: Questions of Sacredness in British Hindu Dance Practice. Proceedings of the 24th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology , Cluj, Rumania.
2005 Authored report on Akademi’s Negotiating Natyam conference. [published on Akademi’s website and sent to Arts Council].
2004 ‘Dance Ethnography Forum’ report. Society for Dance Research Newsletter .
2004 On-line article on Ram Gopal for SALIDAA (South Asian Diaspora Literature and Arts Archive) www.salidaa.org.uk
2004 ‘Rebel with a Cause – Kumudini Lakhia’. Pulse Journal: 33-35.
2003 ‘Where have all the Courses Gone?’ Pulse Journal : 6-8.
2003 ‘Seminar on Rukmini Devi’. Society for Dance Research Newsletter:6-10.
2002 ‘Innovative Explorations’. Pulse Journal:27.
2002 ‘From Monastery to Stage’. Pulse Journal :20.
2002 ‘Backstage with the Dhananjayans’. Pulse Journal: 18.
2001 ‘Ram Gopal: A Challenge to Orientalism’ (pt.1); ‘Ram Gopal: the Post-War Years’ (pt.2). AttenDance, the Dance Annual of India : 36-45, 46-53.

Media/Public

2009 Live interview on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour on Bollywood dance.
2008 Voice-over for audio slideshow on BBC News website on Tamil Dance in the UK. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7758870.stm
2006 Interviewed for BBC Radio 4 ‘Sunday’ programme on South Asian dance, June 25.
2003 ‘Triumphs and Achievements: Ram Gopal’s Legacy of Indian Dance in the UK’. National Portrait Gallery, London (public lecture).

Membership of professional bodies

International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM);
Congress for Research on Dance (CORD);
Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS);
Society for Dance Research (SDR);
British Association for the Study of Religion (BASR );
British Association for the Study of South Asian Studies
(BASAS)

Undergraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Dance Studies

Postgraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Dance Anthropology
Dance: South Asian Studies