Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art

Long before Bollywood, dance played an exceptionally important role in the religious and cultural traditions of India and its neighbors. Dance is everywhere in the arts of the Indian cultural sphere: From the sacred dance of a god bringing the world into being, to the elaborate choreography of modern Bollywood, every move has meaning. Explore how dance has inspired the visual arts in five possible categories: Destruction and Creation, Devotion, Subjugation, Glorification, and Celebration.  Using objects from various collections see how Dance was and continues to be a pervasive art form that impacts all cultures, in India and far beyond.  

Aggie Brenneman is an educator with an interest in Asia. She holds a master’s degree in education from Michigan State University and taught ancient civilizations in middle school for 25 years before becoming a supervisor for Bay Area Teachers Training Institute. Aggie lived in India, Nepal, and Malaysia for more than a decade, where she worked for the Peace Corps, taught in the International School of Kuala Lumpur, and trained in South Indian classical dance, Bharatanatyam. Since 2011 she has been a volunteer docent at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and truly enjoys sharing the art of this great institution. 

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco houses one of the most comprehensive Asian art collections in the world and graciously shares their beauty and history with the community through inspiring educational docent talks.