Beyond Bollywood Audio Exhibition
Female Dancer, circa 1075–1125, Vietnam; former Kingdoms of Champa, Binh Dinh province (Thu Thien Temples), Sandstone, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Gift of Christensen Fund, BL77S3, H. 28 x W. 13 ½ x D. 8 in. (71.1 x 34.3 x 20.3 cm)
Verbal Description
Hello, my name is Emily Holtrop. I am the director of learning and interpretation at the Cincinnati Art Museum. I will be reading the verbal description for Female Dancer in Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art.
Made of sandstone, this Female Dancer sculpture, is from Vietnam, specifically the former Kingdoms of Champa in the Binh Dinh province and the Thu Thien Temples. It dates from circa 1070 to 115. It is in the collection of the Asian Art Museum and was a gift of the Christensen Fund. The accession number us BL77S3.
This grayish-brown sandstone sculpture of a female dancer measures 71.1 by 34.3 by 20.3 centimeters. The dancer takes a broad stance. Her legs are about hip distance apart with knees bent. The feet have broken off as has the front of the narrow, semi-rectangular base on which she stands. The base is about the width of her body. The figure’s elbows are slightly bent. The forearms rest against the upper thighs, the left hand on the left knee; the right hand has broken off.
The dancer wears a tiered, conical crown with triangular adornments encircling each tier. Behind the crown is a flame-shaped halo that comes to a point at the top of the crown. Elongated earlobes adorned with U-shaped earrings hang down to her shoulders. Her eyebrows are depicted as rounded arches over small, incised eyes. The outline of the nose remains, but the rest has since broken away. The broad lips are upturned in a slight smile.
She is adorned with a multi-strand necklace, armlets, and bracelets. Her chest is completely bare, revealing her rounded breasts and belly. Beneath her belly hangs a skirted garment. The garment covers her hips and part of her upper thighs, but tapers at the center.
Label Text
Hello, my name is Emily Holtrop. I am the director of learning and interpretation at the Cincinnati Art Museum. I will be reading the label for Female Dancer in Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art.
Made of sandstone, this Female Dancer sculpture, is from Vietnam, specifically the former Kingdoms of Champa in the Binh Dinh province and the Thu Thien Temples. It dates from circa 1070 to 115. It is in the collection of the Asian Art Museum and was a gift of the Christensen Fund. The accession number us BL77S3.
This figure and its paired partner (not seen here) were originally installed, together with other sculptures, flanking the main image in a temple built some nine hundred years ago by the people of Cham in today’s Vietnam. The central figure that they surrounded is likely to have been a Buddha image found nearby, but it may have been another figure—even a Hindu rather than Buddhist one—that once held pride of place. As numerous sculptural depictions suggest, dance seems to have been part of Cham festivities and religious ceremonies. This figure’s splayed knee pose was and is common in artistic representations of South and Southeast Asian dance, as well as in current dance practices.
While there have been attempts to interpret the vocabulary of ancient Cham performance, no traditions survive. In recent decades, recreated dances for shows at hotels and historic sites intersperse poses from artworks with movements more familiar to modern audiences.