‘The Priestess of Hindu Dance’: Leila Sokhey’s Repertoire and Its Reception in the Netherlands and Germany (1927–38)

Abstract

AbstractLeila Sokhey, who became known as Madame Menaka, is recognized as a protagonist in the so-called Indian dance revival of 1923–47. Her dance embodied a marked ambivalence, for while it was part of a nationalist cultural endeavour, it was soundly grounded in a Western form of the aesthetics of Oriental dance. A variety of sources indicate that this stemmed from her own hybrid identity, as well as from her wish to fulfil the expectations of European audiences. Her art was considered ancient and deeply spiritual in the Netherlands and Germany. Prominent Dutch reviewers considered themselves knowledgeable about Hindu religious dance and suggested that its most authentic form existed in the colonial Dutch Indies rather than in India, whereas German reviewers adhered to and propagated the national socialist ideology and construction of India. Nonetheless, critics questioned whether it was possible to comprehend dance fully from a fundamentally different cultural tradition.