writing.

“Initiate, Transform, Sustain, Reach Out: Post Natyam Collective Members Reflect on Long-Distance Collaboration” (2012) 

Co-authored with Sandra Chatterjee.  In P|ART|TICIPATE, eJournal des Programmbereichs Contemporary Arts & Cultural Production, October 2012 Issue 1.  Schwerpunkt Wissenschaft & Kunst, Universität Salzburg in Kooperation mit der Universität Mozarteum. x

“Choreographing Coalition in Cyberspace: Post Natyam Collective’s Politico-Aesthetic Negotiations” (2012)

Co-authored with Sandra Chatterjee.  In Feminist Media: Participatory Spaces, Networks and Cultural Citizenship, eds. Elke Zobl and Ricarda Düecke. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag: 146–157.

“Solidarity - Rasa/Autobiography - Abhinaya: South Asian Tactics for Performing Queerness”

This article examines the work of D’Lo, a Sri Lankan-gay-hip-hop performance artist, and the Post Natyam Collective, a transnational coalition that develops critical and creative approaches to South Asian dance.  The works utilize two strategies for performing queerness in relation to South Asian cultural practices: (1) autobiographic performance art rooted in identity politics and (2) the South Asian technique of abhinaya.  These strategies use different modes of identification, approaches to the gaze, and audience-performer relationships.  Autobiographical solo performance creates solidarity through shared identity or alliances between performer and audience.  Abhinaya evokes pleasure and sensuality in multiple, ambiguous ways towards the goal of evoking rasa, ideally the audience’s experience of emotional-spiritual transcendence. We investigate tactical cross-overs between the strategies of autobiography and abhinaya in D’Lo’s and Post Natyam’s work: how do they interact, where might they exclude each other, and what kind of performance of queerness emerges through their interplay?  Co-authored with Sandra Chatterjee.  Presented at the Congress on Research in Dance Special Topics Conference: Meanings and Makings of Queer Dance.  University of Michigan.  Ann Arbor, February 16-18, 2012

Relaxing the Eyes in a Bed of Fat: Remembering Time Out! - India (2011)

Article documenting Time Out!, a professional development trip for Philadelphia-based dance artists to New Delhi, India. Commissioned by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.

darshan (2010)

Artbook documenting a site-specific performance installation.  Writing and design by Cynthia Ling Lee.

Harassing the Sanskrit Heroine (2009)

These online excerpts are from a handbound artbook that uses poetic text and photographic image to reveal the historical layers, erasures, and troubled eroticism embedded in the North Indian light classical song form of thumri.  Writing, design, and construction by Cynthia Ling Lee; photography by Shyamala Moorty.

"Rewriting Choreography: Deterritorialized and Impossible Translations" (2009)

Co-authored with Sandra Chatterjee, this paper proposes "translation" as a choreographic method used by contemporary South Asian choreographers.  In Researching Dance:  International Conference on Dance Research, 145-52.  New Delhi: Bosco.

Meet me here, now -- I'll bring my then and there... (2007)

Artbook from a year-long text-movement improvisation project.  Performance writings by Cynthia Ling Lee and Jose Reynoso, with design and photography by Cristina Rosa.