Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T07:22:59.326Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dancing into Modernity: Multiple Narratives of India's Kathak Dance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Pallabi Chakravorty
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Modernity, once a prerogative of the West, is now ubiquitous, experienced diversely by people all over the world. The changing notions of modernity are historically linked to the development of the public sphere. This article broadly attempts to map the discourse of modernity to the evolution of Kathak, a premier classical dance from India. The article has two threads running through it. One is the development of the public sphere in India as it relates to anti-colonial nationalism, the formation of the modern nation-state, and globalization. The other focuses on transformations in Kathak as they relate to changing patronage, ideology, and postcolonial history. I emphasize the latter to mark the transitions in Kathak as emblematic of Indian national identity and national ideology to a new era of cultural contestation. This emergent public domain of culture is coined as “public modernity” by anthropologist Arjun Appadurai in contemporary India. It is linked to economic reforms, or “liberalization,” leading to globalization and a resurgence of communal politics. Both of these make culture, tradition, and identity central to the contestation of power among the diverse social formations in India.

Type
Papers Honoring Marcia B. Siegel: 2005 CORD Outstanding Contribution to Dance Research Award Panel
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 38 , Issue 1-2 , Summer/Winter 2006 , pp. 115 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Appadurai, Arjun. 1995. “Public Modernity in India.” In Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in a South Asian World. Ed. Breckenridge, Carol. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Appadurai, Arjun. 1997. Modernity at Large. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Banerjee, Sumanta. 1989. The Parlor and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta. Calcutta: Seagull Books.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Walter. 1973. Illuminations. London: Fontana.Google Scholar
Bose, Mandrakanta. 1998. “An Early Textual Source for Kathak.” In Dance of India. Ed. Waterhouse, David. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan.Google Scholar
Chakravorty, Pallabi. 2002. “Kathak in Calcutta: A Story of Tradition and Change.” In Culture Studies: An Introduction for Indian Readers. Ed. Gupta, Nilanjana. New Delhi: Worldview Press.Google Scholar
Chakravorty, Pallabi. 2003. “South Asian Dance: Coming of Age in U.S. Universities.” Pulse 4 (Winter): 14–15.Google Scholar
Chakravorty, Pallabi. 2004. “Courtesan Dance in Hindi Films: Nation and the Other Woman in India's Public Sphere.” Presented at the Annual Conference of Popular Culture Association (PCA), San Antonio, Texas.Google Scholar
Chakravorty, Pallabi. 2004. “Kathak in Calcutta: A Story of Tradition and Change.” In Culture Studies: An Introduction for Indian Readers. Ed. Gupta, Nilanjana. New Delhi: Worldview Press.Google Scholar
Chakravorty, Pallabi. 2006. “Remix: Dancing Desire in Bollywood Films.” British Forum for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, University of Winchester, U.K.Google Scholar
Coorlawala, Uttara, Asha. 1994. Classical and Contemporary Indian Dance: Overview, Criteria and Choreographic Analysis. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, New York University.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, Amlan. 1998. “Women Recording Artists.” Paper presented at Calcutta University in a seminar on gender and history.Google Scholar
De Aditi, . 2002. “Footnotes to global dance.” The Hindu March 3.Google Scholar
Eley, Geoff. 1994. “Nations, Publics, and Political Culture: Placing Habermas in the Nineteenth Century.” In Culture, Power, History. Ed. Dirks, Nicholas B., Eley, Geoff, and Ortner, Sherry B.. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Erdman, Joan L. 1984. “Who Should Speak for the Performing Arts? The Case of the Delhi Dancers.” In Cultural Policy in India. Ed. Rudolph, Lloyd I.. New Delhi: Chanakya Publications.Google Scholar
Erdman, Joan L. 1985. Patrons and Performers in Rajasthan. New Delhi: Chanakya Publications.Google Scholar
Erdman, Joan L., ed. 1992. “Introduction.” In Arts Patronage in India. Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Erdman, Joan L. 1996. “Dance Discourses: Rethinking the History of Oriental Dance.’” In Moving Words. Ed. Morris, Gay. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Freitag, Sandra B. 1991. “Enactments of Ram's Story and the Changing Nature of ‘Public’in British India.” South Asia 16: 65–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gupta, Nilanjana. 1998. Switching Channels. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jurgen. 1983. “Modernity: An Incomplete Project.” In The Anti-Aesthetic. Ed. Foster, H.. Seattle: Bay Press.Google Scholar
Jameson, Fredric. 1998. “Globalization as Philosophical Issue.” In The Cultures of Globalization. Ed. Jameson, Fredric and Miyoshi, Masao. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Joshi, Damayanti. 1989. Madame Menaka. New Delhi: Sangeet Natak Akademi.Google Scholar
Jung, Anees. 1969. “Tarnished Gilt and Twinkling Feet.” The Times of India. May 18.Google Scholar
Khokar, Mohan. 1984. Traditions of Indian Classical Dance. New Delhi: Clarion Books.Google Scholar
Kothari, Sunil. 1980. “Kathak All the Way.” Statesman. Date missing.Google Scholar
Kothari, Sunil. 1984. “Out of Step with the Times.” Indian Express, Bombay. July 8.Google Scholar
Kothari, Sunil. 1989. Kathak: Indian Classical Dance Art. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications.Google Scholar
Mankekar, Purnima. 1999. Screening Culture, Viewing Politics. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Manuel, Peter. 1987. “Courtesans and Hindustani Music.” Asian Review (Spring): 12–17.Google Scholar
Marjit, Sugata. 1995. “Transferring Personalised Knowledge: Guru's Dilemma.” Economic and Political Weekly 30: 1663–65.Google Scholar
Muhuri, Reba. 1986. Thumri O Baiji (Bengali). Calcutta: Pratibhas.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, Bimal. 1997. “Introduction.” In Rasa. Ed. Mukherjee, Bimal and Kothari, Sunil. Calcutta: Anamika Kalasangam.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, Gopa. 1999. Baiji Mahal (Bengali). Calcutta: Pratikhan.Google Scholar
Natavar, Mekhala. 1997. New Dances, New Dancers, New Audiences: Shifting Rhythms in the Evolution of India's Kathak Dance. Unpublished PhD diss., University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Neuman, Daniel. M. 1980. The Life of Music in North India. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
O'Shea, Janet. 2002. “At Home in the World? The Bharatnatyam Dancer as Transnational Interpreter.” In Dance in South Asia (proceedings). Ed. Chakravorty, Pallabi. Swarthmore College Publication.Google Scholar
Page, David, and Crawley, William 2001. Satellite over South Asia. Sage: New Delhi.Google Scholar
Prahlad, Pratibha. 1997. “Television and Classical Dance.” In Rasa. Ed. Mukherjee, Bimal and Kothari, Sunil. Calcutta: Anamika Kalasangam.Google Scholar
Rajan, Rajeswari, S., 1993. Real and Imagined Woman. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Saxena, Sushil, K., 1990. “Kathak: Indian Classical Dance Art.” Sangeet Natak 95: 59–67.Google Scholar
Saxena, Sushil. 1991. Swinging Syllables: Aesthetics of Kathak Dance. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shah, Purnima. 1994. “Farmayishi Poetics of Kathak: Significance of Reception.” UCLA Journal of Dance Ethnology 18: 1–7.Google Scholar
Shah, Purnima. 1998. “Transcending Gender in the Performance of Kathak.” Dance Research Journal 30 (2) (Fall): 2–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharar, Abdul, Halim, . 1975. Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture. London: Paul Elek Books.Google Scholar
Sharma, Geeta. 1994. “The Greening of Indian Tradition.” The Telegraph. December 2.Google Scholar
Sharma, Uma. 1972. “Is Kathak on the Decline?” Lipika: A Journal of the Performing Arts 1: 17–20.Google Scholar
Singh, B.P. 1998. India's Culture: The State, the Arts and Beyond. New Delhi: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Venkataraman, Leela. 1990. “Durga Lai: A Gem of the Purest Ray Serene.” Sruti 66: 19–23.Google Scholar
Venkataraman, Leela. 1996. “Artists as Art Managers and Administrators?” Sruti 139: 40–41.Google Scholar