Justine A. Lemos PhD

I hold a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from UC Riverside. I also hold a Master's degree in Dance Ethnography from Mills College, a Master's degree in Anthropology from UC Riverside and a B.A. in World Dance from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. From 2003-2004 I had a Fulbright Grant in India where I researched the politics of gender as manifest in the sub-culture of classical Indian Mohini Attam (also transliterated as Mohiniyattam and Mohiniattam) dance. I returned to India to continue my studies in Malayalam language and Mohini Attam dance in 2005 and then again as a recipient of the American Institute for Indian Studies dissertation award fellowship from 2007-2008. I recently finished my tenure as a American Association for University Women dissertation writing fellow for the 2008-2009 year.

My current book project is an experientially based study of a women's (sub)-culture in Kerala, India, as it is manifest in the processes of choreography, learning, and performing Mohini Attam dance. A prime interest for the project is to understand how and why Mohini Attam forms a (self)-enforced femininity for dancers in Kerala. To this end the dissertation studies the lasya (Sanskrit: feminine) quality of Mohini Attam dance from several ethnographic perspectives: historical, phenomenological, and semeiotic. Because of its emphasis on long-term fieldwork, “deep-embodiment,” participant-observation, and extensive interviews the study is, more than anything else, an attempt to provide ethnographic description and analysis of human life as it manifests in the particular (sub)-culture of Mohini Attam dance in Kerala.

In addition to being a cultural anthropologist I am also a professional dancer. I have received training from Guru Ranjanaa Devi in classical Indian Odissi dance since 1996 and have performed as a principle dancer with Nataraj Dance Company at many venues with in the United States, India, Japan and elsewhere. I have also studied Balinese Legong dance in Bali, Indonesia and Chauu dance in New Delhi, India. I am a long-time yoga practitioner and am certified as a yoga teacher at the 200-hour level from Yoga Alliance. I have trained in Modern dance and Ballet since the age of five.