Reference photo by Tony Ventouris, with great thanks for his work and artistry, from my cousin Leela Brennig's rangapravesh photoshoot.

Like me, Leela is 1/4th Punjabi, and our Nani taught us Kuchipudi dance, a classical art form that changed our lives and connects us to the subcontinent generations later. In this picture, I recognize the traditional aesthetics of the dance form: the makeup, the flowers in the hair, the sari. I also see so much that isn’t Indian Classical- her glare, the backlighting, the silver jewelry, her light skin, the flash of her eyes, the darkness. It feels like a cultural/aesthetic question mark- yet it’s a great portrait for the melting pot that is our family. Leela has our Nani’s nose, our Nani’s love for dance, our Nani’s jewelry- but, as lesbians, as multiracial women, as students of a classical art that is constantly being reinvented while cosplaying antiquity, neither of us can ever fit neatly into the shoes of those who came before us. There are 8 Nayikas in classical dance theory (8 archetypal heroines). The Ninth Nayika = a new kind of heroine, a new kind of story- maybe one that men didn’t write.

I was thinking about all that and a bit more when I decided to make it into a vintage Telugu film poster- the kind of movie that put Kuchipudi on the map in South India’s cities, except, that glare gives dark thriller more than your average dance drama. Something fun, dark, dramatic, and confusing, for all my wonderfully dramatic and confusing girls.

The text on the piece may or may not be correctly spelled- which is, unfortunately, authentic to my family’s history; my grandmother, a refugee of the India-Pakistan Partition, did not speak Telugu fluently (despite mastering a South Indian dance form). The point of this piece was not to perfectly mimic a vintage genre, but to reference just enough to get people asking questions. The script writing is intended to read "Rakesh Brennig, Nilimma Devi, Tony Ventouris, Ninth Nayika Leela, Director Leslie Feinberg, Vijaya Pictures".