A Mystical Merger of Traditions, Past and Present

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/25/arts/dance/25batt.html
8/25/2008

Excerpt: And Sudarshan Belsare, whom I, while watching, had decided
was a woman, turns out, in the program, to be "a trans performer,"
perpetuating the "classical tradition of Stri-Vesham (female
impersonation), where the target gender identity of a woman's psyche
and body is the medium to communicate Nayaki Bhava (the voice of the
female protagonist) in the traditional Bharatanatyam repertory."