This article discusses how orientalism has operated and continues to operate within the North American artistic landscape of dance artists. The author starts by focusing on Uday Shankar (1900–1977), one of the major, though often overlooked, figures over the last 100 years of South Asian (and predominantly Indian) dance performance on the concert stage in the diasporic context, to consider how orientalism, the desire for authenticity, a nationalist agenda, religious fundamentalism, economic necessities, multi-cultural initiatives, and diversity desires all interact and coalesce to form an undercurrent of limited potentials about how and why South Asian dance can exist within the American performance discourse. In an auto-ethnographic move, the author then juxtaposes Shankar’s historical legacy with a new artistic project by the author (b. 1969), entitled Reorient the Orient, premiering in 2024. The writing uses archival sources such as photographs, programs, publicity materials, featured essays, newspaper previews, reviews, filmed dance footage, choreographic analysis, and personal reflections to explore how social factors and personal ambitions create awkward relationships within orientalism’s manifestations in the diasporic U.S. performance landscape.

中文翻译：

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Uday Shan-Kar 和我：自我东方化、连字化和散居宣言的故事

本文讨论了东方主义如何在北美舞蹈艺术家的艺术景观中运作并将继续运作。作者首先关注 Uday Shankar（1900-1977），这是过去 100 年来南亚（主要是印度）在散居背景下音乐会舞台上舞蹈表演的主要人物之一，尽管经常被忽视，值得考虑东方主义、对真实性的渴望、民族主义议程、宗教原教旨主义、经济必需品、多元文化倡议和多样性愿望如何相互作用和融合，形成一股潜能有限的暗流，说明南亚舞蹈如何以及为何能够在美国表演中存在话语。在一个自动民族志的举动中，作者随后将香卡的历史遗产与作者（生于 1969 年）的新艺术项目并列，