UGC-NET (NTA) Exam, Performing Arts, JUNE-2025

Total Questions: 100

41. Read the following passage and answer the questions.

The history of Indian classical dance is no longer a matter of conjecture; it is a fact and reality which pervades all parts of India and extends from the earliest levels of civilization to the present day.
This mass and volume of material is so extensive that it has been impossible for scholars to bring it together in one single totality. Besides, the art has permeated all others ranging from poetry and literature to architecture, sculpture and painting and naturally music and theater. The antiquity, vastness and the multiple facets of the art make it impossible to make a total conclusive statement.
Nevertheless, through the single distinctive traditions in different parts of India, we can have glimpse of the rich, strong and vibrant traditions of the art from the earliest times.
India's prehistory and proto-history also provide sufficient evidence of this fact. For example, there is the dancing girl from Mohenjodaro, and broken torso of the Harappan period suggestive of a dance pose.
There are beautiful metaphors and similes in the Vedas based on the art of dance. Dance, as a profession and as a social activity, has been associated with all significant moments of the life cycle. In the epics and puranas, the princes are taught the art of dancing; both Rama and Arjuna were adept in it and, of course.
Krishna is the supreme dancer. Only a flourishing tradition of performance could have enabled the writer of the Natyasastra, to codify the theatrical art in his monumental work.
How can the authenticity of Indian dance be seen?

Correct Answer: 2. Through Historic evidences
Solution:

The authenticity of Indian dance is not a matter of imagination or assumption but supported by historical and archaeological evidence. References from Harappan artifacts, Vedic metaphors, and texts like the Natyashastra prove its authenticity.

42. What does the presence of dancing girl from Mohenjodaro signify?

Correct Answer: 3. Dance existed in Indian's protohistoric period.
Solution:

The discovery of the dancing girl from Mohenjodaro and the Harappan torso in a dance pose signifies that dance was part of India's protohistoric culture, existing thousands of years ago, long before medieval or modern times.

43. In which amongst the following did dance play a role according to the passage?

Correct Answer: 3. It was a part of education.
Solution:

The passage mentions that princes like Rama and Arjuna were trained in dance, showing that it was included as a subject of learning and training. Thus, dance was not merely entertainment but an integral part of education and personality development.

44. What is the pre-requisite necessary to document Performing Arts like Dance in a society?

Correct Answer: 1. A Rich tradition of Dance
Solution:

The Natyashastra could only have been written because there was already a rich and flourishing performance tradition of dance in society. Without such a tradition, codifying the art into a text would not have been possible.

45. What subjects does the Indian dance not touch open holistically?

Correct Answer: 4. Ayurveda
Solution:

The passage highlights dance's connection with poetry, literature, architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and theatre, but Ayurveda (medicine) is not mentioned as a subject influenced by dance.

46. Read the following passage and answer the questions.

While long-established paradigms continue to inspire work from structural, symbolic, and functional perspectives, two new trajectories have risen in ethnographic dance studies in this decade.
One trajectory is sociopolitical; it draws on the rapidly developing ideas and language of cultural studies.
Here we talk about dance in terms of the "socially constructed nature of human movement" (Reed 1998, 503) and of "bodily theories- armatures of relations through which bodies perform individual, gendered, ethnic, or community identities" (Foster 1995, 8).
We discuss globalization, transmigration, de and re-contextualization, invented communities, kinesthetic homes, all of which address the way dance works and is worked upon in the changing contexts of world politics. We specify whether a dance affirms, resists, re-creates, challenges, undermines, or re-enforce the statues quo, and sometimes whether it does several of these at once, for we agree that dance as social action can be ambiguous (Desmond 1994).
The second trajectory is kinesthetic. Here we seek deeper understanding of movement itself as a way of knowing, a medium that carries meaning in an immediately felt, somatic mode, this trajectory runs parallel to the ideas and language of the anthropology of the senses.
We discuss embodied knowledge, proprioception, somaesthesia, kinesthetic ambiance, kinesthetic empathy, and synesthesia, all of which address the somatic dimensions of movement knowledge.
Dance ethnography generally examines the cultural_____of dance.

Correct Answer: 2. situatedness
Solution:

Dance ethnography looks at dance not just as an art form but in relation to its cultural context and setting. The passage explains dance as "socially constructed" and "situated" within identities and
politics, which directly points to its situatedness.

47. Kinesthetic knowledge of dance is an important part of dance ethnography as it addresses cultural meanings inherent in:

Correct Answer: 4. movement
Solution:

The kinesthetic perspective highlights dance as movement knowledge—the somatic (bodily) meaning embedded in how the body moves. Thus, it focuses on the cultural meanings inherent in movement.

48. Which perspective do you think relies the least on theories external to dance?

Correct Answer: 2. kinesthetic
Solution:

The socio-political perspective draws heavily on external theories like cultural studies and politics, while structural/functional theories borrow from anthropology. The kinesthetic perspective, however, focuses inward on dance itself - movement, somaesthesia, and embodied knowledge - thus depending least on outside theories.

49. Why does the passage state that dance as social action can be ambiguous? Because dance may______.

Correct Answer: 4. present opposite phenomena
Solution:

The passage states that dance as social action can be ambiguous because it can both affirm and resist, challenge and reinforce, sometimes at the same time-thus presenting opposite phenomena simultaneously.

50. Why do you think that dance study should be largely located in its context? Because:

Correct Answer: 4. it is an embodied expression
Solution:

Dance studies must be located in their context because dance is an embodied expression—it reflects social, cultural, political, and somatic realities through movement, which only makes sense in context.