In search of the choreographies of daily life and struggle

This essay is a reflection on the questions that have arisen during and consequently complicated the creative process as I have worked to infuse my choreographic work with social justice. Some questions have come from the troubling association of dance with entertainment only, ultimately broadening out to further questions about the function and possibilities of dance. Others have come from charges by activists that dance does not ultimately 'deliver' legislation that saves lives. Why dance then? In reflecting on these such questions I have sought to theorize my practice and parse out the ambiguities and contestations that necessarily complicate a practice that is intensely physical but also immediately metaphoric, and lasts only in the moment, in the labor of dancing bodies. Particularly important for me have been questions around dance and South Asian women's identities.