The Indian dance tradition boasts eight classical dance forms: Bharata Natyam, kathakali, Manipuri, Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Mohini Attam, and Sttriya. Many of these have become popular the world over and been seen at various international dance festivals thanks to the efforts of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, private agencies, and impresarios. However, people ask: Is there no Modern dance in India? Don’t Indian dancers choreograph in the contemporary idiom? Does Indian dance only depict stories of gods and the goddesses or Indian mythology? Are there no innovations taking place in Indian dance? Do dancers not depict contemporary issues? Is there a new kinetic language of Indian dance? The answer is yes, Indian dance does find contemporary expression as well – one could term it Modern Indian Dance. Not as an imitation of a term from the West, but indigenous and essentially Indian. In this volume, the voices of dancers, choreographers, innovators, scholars, and critics are heard. Their contributions cover a wide range of topics which mirror the new directions Indian dance is taking – not our but many, enhancing the volume’s documentary value. The tradition of abstraction is explored, as are the martial arts and other dance traditions employed by dancers to express their concerns and urges to create and experiment with contemporary themes, Issues of inter-culturalism and modernism are discussed. Illustrated generously with images by photographers of international repute, the book reveals the mystique of the new Indian dance.
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