Dancer will oppose Spice Girls show at Khajuraho - The Navhind Times

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A Bharatnatyam dancer, Geeta Chandran, has written to the
collector, district administration of Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh,
pleading that the Spice Girls, who are scheduled to perform at
the world famous Chandela monuments later this year, be prevented
>from doing so.

The Spice Girls have already visited the monuments and had been
photographed against the sculptures for publicity stills, noted
the dancer. Recently returned after performing at the world
famous Khajuraho festival of classical dances, Geeta Chandran
said in her letter that such performances would marginalise the
delicate spiritual context in which these temples were
constructed nearly 1,000 years ago.

"The eroticism of Khajuraho is part of the larger Hindu view of
the cyclicality of life," the dancer noted. "By making those
temples an erotic prop to their pop performance" the Spice Girls
would be hurting the sentiments of centuries and centuries of
sacred creativity in India.

"The profile of the Spice Girls does not match that of the
temples,' said the dancer and lambasted the dollar-hungry
commercial event producers who damaged the great artistic
heritage of India and debased it with such puerile shot".

Also, the damage done to the temples and India's heritage by the
international media which will cover the performance at the
world's "most erotic temple site" will harm both the temples and
the larger Indian culture. "Eroticism sans spirituality will be
reduced to pornography," the dancer warned.

Geeta Chandran also called for all India artists to come together
to prevent such an event from being arranged at the Khajuraho
temples.

She also said that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI),
which had even prevented the Indian classical dance festival from
being performed on site, should also call for a ban on the Spice
Girls performing at Khajuraho. The national culture academies
too should call for such a ban.

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