The Oriental ‘veils’ and ‘shawls’ as a Sign of Modesty and Seduction in the Western Dance Productions from the Late 17th till the beginning of the 20th Century

Recently the veil, worn particularly by the women, has been the object of animated cultural, religious and legal debates in various countries. Thus, the veil has been commonly perceived as a symbol of identity to be adopted and put on in the public and domestic contexts or, on the contrary, as a sign of political protest to be rather removed and rejected. In my paper I will deal with the ‘veils’ and the ‘shawls’ as major ‘dancing objects’, and the ways they have been widely employed by the choreographers and the dancers on the Western stage, from the end of the seventeenth till the first decade of the twentieth century, in order to define the exotic female Eastern characters, but also as a sign of both modesty and seduction. In my presentation I will also tackle the reactions of the audience to the theatrical use of them, which in some cases produced wonder and admiration as well as awe, scorn and scandal.

Tiziana Leucci is a senior research fellow at the French National Center for the Scientific Research (CNRS) attached to the Centre d’Etudes Sud-Asiatiques et Himalayennes in Paris-Aubervilliers. Her Ph.D. thesis in Cultural History and Social Anthropology (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris) dealt with the Indian dancers and courtesans' culture and their perception and representation in the European travelers’ accounts and on the Western stage. Leucci studied ballet and modern dance at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, and South Indian Bharatanatyam and Odissi dance styles in India for twelve years (from 1987 till 1999). She performs and gives master classes in Europe, USA and Russia and authored two books and several articles on Dance History and Anthropology. She collaborates with the Opéra de Paris, the Teatro alla Scala of Milan and the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome and directs a research project titled ‘Connected Histories of Dance’ at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, and a research workshop at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in Paris. Since 2010 she teaches Indian Bharatanatyam dance at the Conservatoire de Musique et Danse ‘Gabriel Fauré’, Les Lilas-Est Ensemble (France).