Monday, October 24, 2005

A haven for the portly

Not that I am sizeist or stereotype how a professional dancer should look. However, when watching a classical Indian dance performance I was treated (the term being loosely used) to a rather large and hairy male dancer. At first, I was disturbed by the pendulous man-breast covered in fur rhythmically undulating to the music, but then I was oddly engaged. As he continued to gyrate, his lard picked up the momentum and would stop moving several minutes after he would. As I vacillated between morbid fascination and an attempt to keep dinner down, I realized that all of the dancers were in the “full figured” range. Prior to now, I was under the impression that being a dancer implied a certain degree of physical fitness, but apparently not in the Indian context.

Not being an expert, I am going to leave it to my Indian posse to comment on this fascinating phenomenon. The question being – did I inadvertently stumble into a performance of the West Bengal Professional Stout Dancers Troupe? Or Does being a classical dancer in India not require you to be able to actually move much?

1 comment:

Smita said...

well, the men DO need to go lingerie shopping huh??