Ithaca College

Theatre Arts Assistant Professor Lindsay Gilmour has been awarded a Fulbright grant to study Tibetan ritual dance in nunneries in northern India in the spring of 2018.

Professor Gilmour will visit several Buddhist nunneries in northern India as she conducts her research. She describes her project as follows:
"Traditionally, Tibetan nuns were not given access to dance and embodiment practices. Recently, however, in refugee communities of India and Nepal, nuns have received greater status and access to practices including ritual dance. The consequences are external, branching to the community, and internal, implicating the participants’ lived experiences and spiritual practices. Synthesizing a career in professional dance and a long involvement in somatic practices and Tibetan studies I will visit select nunneries and monasteries in Northern India to investigate nuns’ assess to dance and the processes by which this empowers them personally and in their communities."