Dance Matters

Book excerpt: This volume presents a multidisciplinary perspective on dance scholarship and practice as they have evolved in India and its diaspora, outlining how dance histories have been written and re-written, how aesthetic and pedagogical conventions have changed and are changing, and how politico-economic shifts have shaped Indian dance and its negotiation with modernity.. Written by eminent and emergent scholars and practitioners of Indian dance, the articles make dance a foundational socio-cultural and aesthetic phenomena that reflects and impacts upon various cultural intercourses -- from art and architecture to popular culture, and social justice issues. They also highlight the interplay of various frameworks: global, national, and local/indigenous for studying these diverse performance contexts, using dance as a critical lens to analyse current debates on nationalism, transnationalism, gender and sexuality, and postcolonial politics. At the performace level, some articles question the accepted divisions of Indian dance (‘classical’, ‘folk’, and ‘popular’) and critique the dominant values associated with classical dance forms. Finally, the book brings together both experiential and objective dimensions of bodily knowledge through dance.