Nyota Inyoka created around 50 compositions combining Theatre, Dance and Music relating to India, between 1921 and her final performances in the 1950s. From the very beginning of her international career, she performed in the most prestigious theatres of the time, mainly in France, in Europe and in America. Nyota Inyoka was a pioneer in many respects. She was the first Franco-Indian woman artist in Indian modern dance, but was no doubt overshadowed by the first modern Indian dancer Uday Shankar. Nyota Inyoka was the first feminist Indian dancer to draw inspiration from Hinduism, as her innovation came through the medium of figures of goddesses. Historians have largely ignored this pioneer, certainly due to the fact that she is unclassifiable. Her work was shut into the category of oriental dance, with its presumptions related to the history and imaginary of colonialism, which press coverage of her performances was eager to highlight. Yet Nyota Inyoka was extremely close to the India of her time. But the exceptional nature of Nyota Inyoka’s work goes even further. She was the first in France to interpretate on a western stage the difficult portion of the most ancient Sanskrit dance treatise, encompassing the 108 karaṇa, an alphabet of poses and steps, for which so many Indian dance styles offer an interpretation. She did this particularly at the time of the reinvention of temple dances of southern India starting in the 1930s.

Starting in 2018 at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, a symposium with a research-creation next to Inyoka’s archives, include an interpretation of Nyota Inyoka’ Dances by contemporary women artists and researchers, to reconsider the complex history of modern dance and classical Indian dance together.

Katia Légeret is a researcher and Professor of Philosophy and Performing Arts at University Paris 8, where she leads the research team Scènes du monde [world stages]. Director and choreographer, she is a Bharata Natyam artist under the name Manochhaya, and a specialist in Indian classical and contemporary forms of dance theatre.

À la fois yoga, art martial, théâtre, danse, poésie et musique, le bharata-natyam puise sa sagesse en Inde dans l’observation de la nature et de ses mouvements, en particulier ceux des arbres. L’Abhinaya-darpaṇa, un texte antérieur au VIe siècle, a élaboré une gestuelle des arbres exceptionnelle, mais très rarement traduite et pratiquée. Katia Légeret-Manochhaya vous invite à la découvrir. Elle y fait fructifier la transmission du maître de bharata-natyam K. Muralidhar Rao qu’elle a reçue à Mysore de 1985 à 2014.
Dans son enseignement oral qui accompagne ce livre, il s’agit de se ressourcer avec les arbres qui nous entourent, à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur de soi, par la méditation, la respiration et le mouvement. La gestuelle des arbres est une énergétique puissante qui harmonise en nous-mêmes rythmes, souffle et sérénité.

Nos enseignements artistiques sont proposés sur le site www.creons-au-musee.com

Combining yoga, martial art, theatre, dance, poetry and music, bharata-natyam draws its wisdom from the observation of nature and its movements, in particular those of trees. The Abhinaya-darpaṇa, a text that dates from before the 6th century, codified an exceptional gestural language of trees, but it is very rarely translated and practiced. Katia Légeret-Manochhaya invites you to discover it. In this way she passes on the teachings of bharata-natyam master Muralidhar Rao which she received at Mysore from 1985 to 2014.
Her oral teachings, which accompany this book, are concerned with nourishing ourselves with the trees that surround us, inside and outside ourselves, through meditation, breathing and movement. The gestural language of trees is a powerful energy that harmonises our rhythms, breath and serenity.

Our artistic teachings are available on the site www.creons-au-musee.com

Katia Légeret est artiste de bharata-natyam (théâtre dansé de l’Inde) chercheuse et professeure des universités en philosophie de l’art. Elle a publié de nombreux ouvrages sur les arts de l’Inde, sur la médiation culturelle au musée et sur les liens entre art et écologie.
Katia Légeret is a bharata-natyam artist (dance theatre of India), university professor and researcher of philosophy of art. She has published numerous works on the arts of India, cultural mediation in museums and the links between art and ecology.