Queering masculinity: how Nagara dancers in Durban expand traditional gender expressions

NICOSH'E Ramdhani, an academic and a performer, in a recent groundbreaking research, has explored how male Nagara dancers in Durban's Hindu community embody feminine divinity, while expanding, rather than contradicting, their masculinity.

- MONISHKA GOVENDER

Ramdhani, from Reservoir Hills, a student support specialist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, graduated with a Master's degree in theology focusing on gender, religion and health.

His thesis, "Queering masculinity: engaging the performance and meaning among Nagara dancers in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal", found that Nagara dancers did not experience ritual femininity as a contradiction to their masculinity, but as a means of expanding it, offering a culturally-grounded model of inclusive masculinity.

His work is the first academic study in South Africa to explore Nagara dance through the lens of queer theory.

"Nagara dancing is much more than a performance," said Ramdhani, the founder and director of Nehaal Productions, a dance company that blends classical Indian dance forms with social advocacy.

"It is a sacred ritual dance often performed during Hindu festivals, embodying the Goddess, especially Goddess Saraswathi, through movement, rhythm and devotion. Nagara dancers are living embodiments of the Goddess and serve as conduits to the divine."