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

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.

Dance Matters Too: Markets, Memories, Identities is a rich intellectual contribution to the growing field of dance studies in India. It forges new avenues of scholarly inquiry and critical engagement and opens the field in innovative ways. This volume builds on Dance Matters (2009), which mapped the interdisciplinary breadth of the field. The chapters presented here continue to underline the uniqueness of a field that is a blend of critical scholarship on aesthetics and performance with the humanities and social sciences. Including diverse material, analytical approaches and perspectives from scholars and practitioners, this multidimensional volume explores debates on dance preservation and tradition in globalizing India, multimedia choreographies and the circulation of dance via electronic media, embodiment and memory, power, democracy and bourgeoning markets, classification and censorship, and corporatization and Bollywood. This tour de force will appeal to those in dance and performance studies, cultural studies, sociology as well as to readers interested in tradition, modernity, gender and globalization.

The cultural imagination of contemporary India is experiencing rapid change, especially among the middle classes. New communication technologies are being used to reach new audiences and spectators. This momentum of change has further facilitated blurring the strict boundaries between high and low, classical and folk, and Indian and Western cultural forms, creating multiple sites of amalgamation. One such ubiquitous form is the popular genre of dance reality shows on television. These Bollywood-inspired dance forms are arguably one among the most visible cultural products of India's new economy. Using multiple theoretical perspectives from Anthropology, Performance Studies, and Film and Media studies, this book locates, historicizes, and analyzes the dance reality show both as an aesthetic-cultural product, and as a lived reality of a new generation of middle-class viewers and performers. The author argues that these reality shows play an important role in shaping the contours and ambivalences of India's new public culture, and explores how a large emergent cross-section of young dancers and choreographers are struggling to stake a claim in the new culture industry of India.