(h/b) traversing tradition // celebrating dance in india

This anthology celebrates and documents dance in its various forms in contemporary India. Dance occupies the most prestigious place of all performing arts in India yet curiously, to a large extent, it has remained outside the arena of academic discourse. The articles here, incorporating a multidisciplinary approach, are rooted in research on relevant issues in the area of Dance Studies. The volume includes contributions from eminent scholars, writers and commentators as well as short essays and interviews with Indian artists who share their stories. These add personal perspectives and insights into the broad themes discussed in the articles.Inheriting an art that has now become a cultural product for global consumption in postmodern India has supreme challenges for a restless woman. My dance journey has contained more avatars than a James Cameron movie - ecstatic, foolish, gruesome, awkward, magical, embarrassing, and downright fabulous. (Anita Ratnam) It is a fear among observers that the dance scene is running thin, even as it spreads far. We live in the time of sharing and of experimentation. From this trend, new vocabulary may emerge. This will at least serve to put behind us suspicion between the past and present, between the traditional and modern, between the old and the new, between practice in the West and the East and so on. I am convinced that depth too will return to the form, for nothing can take away from the truth of it. (Leela Samson) (from the publisher)