dr. bianca iannitti

Born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, Bianca Luisa Iannitti is a recent PhD recipient of Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music with a concentration in Vocal Performance at Wheaton College (MA) in 2015. In 2019, Bianca received her Masters degree in Music (Ethnomusicology) from Wesleyan. She currently holds a position at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Music Department, where she teaches World Music, Ethnomusicology, and Popular Music. In addition to her background as a classically trained opera singer, Bianca is a bharatanatyam dancer from the T. Balasaraswati tradition under the instruction of Anine Singh de Grood and in collaboration with Bala’s senior disciple Smt. Nandini Ramani. Bianca has completed a number of lecture-demonstrations on the subject of bharatanatyam, embodiment and dance, South Indian Karnatak music, and the intersection between gender and bharatanatyam. In addition to her primary research on bharatanatyam, Bianca’s secondary area of research focuses on Italian-American music and festivals, and the growing popularity of Italian rap and reggae in southern Italy. She is currently writing her dissertation on the manifestation of the T. Balasaraswati dance tradition in the United States.

A “Blank Slate?”: Preserving and Embodying the Kandappa-T. Balasaraswati Bharatanāṭyam Dance Tradition in the United States

Through primary resources, theories on embodiment and cross-cultural pedagogy, my own experience as a budding dancer, and interviews with the American disciples of world renowned bharatanāṭyam dancer Smt. T. Balasaraswati (1918-1984), this presentation employs my teacher's notion of a “blank slate” as a methodological framework in order to examine the ways in which pedagogical adaptations and cross-cultural negotiations have contributed to the preservation and dissemination of the Kandappa-Balasaraswati dance tradition in the United States for over 60 years.

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