Description
Book SynopsisScripting Dance in Contemporary India is an edited volume that engages with multiple dance forms of India and their representations. The contributions are eclectic, including writings by both scholars and performers who share their experiential knowledge.
Trade ReviewA collection of essays by authors with credentials ranging from purely academic to dance and other occupations, this volume examines issues in representations of dance and dancers, stories and histories of dance traditions and displacement, and negotiation of aesthetics.... [T]his book represents an effort to write outside the now-traditional expositions on India’s dance traditions, and as such, it is commendable. Summing Up: Recommended ... Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. * CHOICE *
This fascinating book is not one to be read in haste, because the essays it contains both deserve and require a great deal of concentration. They will reward such attention because they reveal painstaking research on numerous aspects of the manifold forms of classical Indian dance. Careful study will bring a great deal to light not only about those dance traditions, but also about the complex sociopolitical problems that have often bedeviled their performers (as well as scholars) in the twentieth century and beyond.... I highly recommend this book to those who wish to delve further into the rich field of Indian dance. The bibliographies attached to the various chapters are, in themselves, valuable resources. * Journal of Dance Education *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Mythili Anoop and Varun Gulati I Representations 1.The Sacred and the Profane C R Rajendran 2.The Indian Dancing Girl in Early Colonial Travel Writing Ruchika Sharma II Histories in Process 3.Unraveling Mohiniyattam’s Outlaw Justine Lemos 4.Building a Natyashastra Anandi Salinas 5.East and West, Araimandi and Arabesque: The Emergence of Indian Dance in the American Performing Arts Scene Kelli Ling and Sushmita Arunkumar III Negotiations 6.Working Through the ‘Difficult Whole’: Analyzing Ananya Chatterjea's Mohona: Estuaries of Desire Kaustvi Sarkar 7.Changing Landscape of Dance in South India - Effect of Economic Liberalization on Dance Practices and Patronage Veena Basavarajaiah 8. Dancing Narratives: Performing Mythology in Globalized Spaces Mythili Anoop 9.Picturing Dance Divya Venkatesh IV Other Presences 10.Thidambu Nrittham: A Practitioner’s Perspective Puthumana Govindan Namboodiri 11.Listening to ‘Women of God’: A Report on a Journey from real to Reel Melvin Pinto S J About the Contributors Index
