Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper examines how memes function as catalysts within the Indian classical dance community, challenging entrenched hierarchies of caste, class, and authority in traditional guru-shishya pedagogical structures. Using humor and visual storytelling, memes created and circulated by anyone with access to digital platforms validate lived experiences of exclusion, foster solidarity among users, and offer an accessible yet subversive mode of resistance against pedagogical authority. Memes are treated here as participatory digital artifacts that reflect and critique the power dynamics embedded within Indian classical dance pedagogy. In doing so, the study contributes to ongoing conversations about power relations between gurus and disciples, tradition, and critique—proposing memes as tools that both contest and reimagine modes of learning and belonging.
Source: South Asian Dance Intersections
Author: Sriradha Paul
Language: English
Topic: Arts and Performance Studies
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7121560395
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