Speaking of Dance

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Indian classical dance is a ‘high art’. In ancient India, it was even venerated as a ‘sacred’ act. Ever since Bharata wrote his seminal Natyasastra (c. 200 CE), it has been one of the central elements of scholarly discourse, generating a whole host of learned treatises. Mandakranta Bose here takes a close look at this vast Sanskritic textural corpus attempting not only to reconstruct India’s two-millennia-long dance tradition, but also to dispel the historical and aesthetic misconceptions woven around it. With a fresh, critical appraisal of the key concepts surfacing from the Natyasastra of Bharata Muni and some of the other landmark treatises, like Abhinayadarpana, Sangitaratnakara, and Nartananirnaya, the book tries to highlight how these time-honoured writings have contributed to the evolution of classical dancing in India. And, yet more significantly perhaps, the author ventures into a comparatively uncharted terrain seeking to explore the status of performing arts (including dance) in early Jaina tradition. Focussing on the position of dancing in the contemporary cultural life of India, Mandakranta Bose shows how classical dance in India today has achieved a creative blend of tradition and modernity, leading to a vigorous revival of a great heritage, a part of the larger effort towards ‘nationalist rediscovery’. Supporting the text with visual material to correlate the theory and practice of dancing in India, the book offers perceptions that will appeal to everyone involved with performing arts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mandakranta Bose

Dr. Mandakranta Bose, who has specialized in the Sanskrit tradition of dramaturgy and dance, teaches Religious Studies and Women’s Studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada where she is Director of the Centre for India and South Asia Research. She is a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London. Some of her recent works include Speaking of Dance: The Indian Critique; Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval and Modern India; The Dance Vocabulary of Classical India; and Movement and Mimesis: The Idea Dance in the Sanskritic Tradition.

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Bibliographic information

Title
Speaking of Dance
Author
Edition
1st ed.
Publisher
ISBN
8124601720
Length
xii+144p., 25 Plates; Bibliography; Index; 25cm.
Subjects