Art Without Frontiers - Classical Dance and Music of India

Looking Back to Move Forward was a recent UNESCO World Dance Day theme. Confucius said: Study the past if you would define the future. The scope of this book is to share the insights of Indian and international artists, scholars and gurus over the past forty years on the transmission of Indian performing arts in a changing world.

An earlier edition originated from the issues of Indian classical performing arts in the world context of presentation, performance, training and learning traditions in a 20th century milieu by students and artists from non-traditional backgrounds. Many of the ideas presented were first shared during seminars in the 90's bringing together artists, gurus, and arts scholars in conjunction with a unique series of classical Indian dance and music festivals that changed the perception that non-Indian practitioners of these arts could never graduate from student status. The performances and seminars shifted the paradigm and today international artists are very much part of the performance scenario, albeit with more nuanced challenges. This revised edition brings 21" century insights, concerns and recommendations of artists, gurus, scholars and media representatives to frame ongoing issues relevant for all who care about India's intangible cultural heritage of classical performing arts.

The concept of those six Videshi Kalakar Utsavs (Festivals of Dance and Music by artists on non-Indian origin), was reflected in some of the Art Without Frontiers: Indian Arts on the Move seminar issues as audiences experienced the performances of artists who learned their art forms after spending their formative years in another culture and raised interesting questions. How are they drawn to the tradition? How do they enter into the tradition? How does any student in modern times enter? In the first year's seminar, Pt. Ravi Shankar related the story of his guru's reaction to the first flight to moon, "so many miles up," he had asked, "but how far down have we gone into the sea? Though we haven't gone as far down as we've gone high, it is much more difficult to go deep."

We all are trying to go deep. It is fascinating to consider how arts and artists survive and flourish under varied circumstances. Side by side it is important to thoughtfully consider how we all can responsibly further the arts using our collective capacities.

**Contents and Sample Pages**