Even the world of modern dance couldn’t contain him for long: his attention was ever wandering outward, to clubs, gigs, experimental film, parties, boutiques, galleries and happenings, to drag and drugs. Some nine centuries later, Shiva would emerge yet further from the temple, finding new devotees in the world. Nataraja’s global journey turns to the west Having travelled more than 600 kilometres northwest from his home on the southeastern coast of India, Narasimhavarman simply couldn’t help borrowing Chalukyan ideas and incorporating them in his father’s magnificent shore city project, Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram near modern Chennai. Dancing icons like the Maruts, the Ashwins, and the Adityas, were clearly in vogue in the Vedic age. The favourite was probably Indra, who loosely corresponded to ancient Greece’s Zeus.

Q (9/01, pp.137–8) – 4 stars out of 5 – "...Glistening, seemingly extra-terrestrial prettiness....bewitching stuff..."

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Among them was performer, designer, club legend and all-round living artwork Leigh Bowery – responsible for the giant brown hairy muff, the transparent plastic toilets and countless other wild adventures in costuming. Bowery appeared on stage, too, vastly tall and notably padded among Clark’s sinewy family of dancers. He dances within a circular or cyclically closed arch of flames ( prabha mandala), which symbolically represent the cosmic fire that in Hindu cosmology creates everything and consumes everything, in cyclic existence or cycle of life. The fire also represents the evils, dangers, heat, warmth, light and joys of daily life. The arch of fire emerges from two makara (mythical water beasts) on each end.

In the hymn of Manikkavacakar's Thiruvasagam, he testifies that at Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram had, by the pre- Chola period, an abstract or 'cosmic' symbolism linked to five elements (Pancha Bhoota) including ether. [46] Nataraja is a significant visual interpretation of Brahman and a dance posture of Shiva. The details in the Nataraja artwork have attracted commentaries and secondary literature such as poems detailing its theological significance. [19] [24] It is one of the widely studied and supreme illustrations of Hindu art from the medieval era. [47] [48] The word Nataraja is a Sanskrit term, from नट Nata meaning "act, drama, dance" and राज Raja meaning "king, lord"; it can be roughly translated as Lord of the dance or King of the dance. [22] [23] According to Ananda Coomaraswamy, the name is related to Shiva's fame as the "Lord of Dancers" or "King of Actors". [24] The depiction was informed of cosmic or metaphysical connotations is also argued on the basis of the testimony of the hymns of Tamil saints. [57] a b c d Saroj Panthey (1987). Iconography of Śiva in Pahāṛī Paintings. Mittal Publications. pp.59–60, 88. ISBN 978-81-7099-016-1. a b Anna Libera Dallapiccola (2007). Indian Art in Detail. Harvard University Press. p.28. ISBN 978-0-674-02691-9.

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His legs are bent, which suggests an energetic dance. His long, matted tresses, are shown to be loose and flying out in thin strands during the dance, spread into a fan behind his head, because of the wildness and ecstasy of the dance. On the second floor, things calm down, with a series of rooms featuring the work of friends and collaborators, who are also his mythologisers. A poignant feature of any dance exhibition is that such an ephemeral art form is always destined to be remembered largely through its accoutrements: among them are the outrageous costumes designed by Bowery and his collaborator Trojan (Bowery’s nipple-pinching red onesie from 1984’s New Puritans hangs in a small costume section like a discarded condom). A collection of Sarah Lucas pieces includes a miniature of the masturbating arm from 2001’s Before and After: The Fall, and Cnut, a concrete cast of Clark’s torso, enthroned on a toilet, holding a cigarette, atop a giant sandwich. Is it right that someone should be making music apparently just for the sheer joy of it and transmitting that enjoyment to other people, I ask myself, without any apparent regard for intellectual, spiritual or political well-being of others? Are there no more philosophies of the Id to be expounded? No more secondhand quasi-religious theories to be elaborated upon? No more individual egos to be bared?