Traditions of Indian Folk Dance

Tribal and folk dances have been responsible for sustaining the long continuities of ancient traditions. They are the link between the past and the present. They also constitute the foundations of major movements of classical arts. The first edition of Traditions of Indian Folk Dance, published ten years ago, was a pioneering work which provided a conceptual framework for comprehending dance. It focussed attention on the need of placing these dances in their ecological, racial, linguistic, social and cultural context, and in turn using 'dance' as an indicator and touchstone for perceiving the multilayered phenomenon of the cultural patterns of India in their dimension of universality and specificity, stillness and flux.

The book stimulated, provoked, inspired and guided further work particularly for micro-level regional studies. This revised and enlarged edition fills the outlines and opens up further vistas of exploration and provides an unique tool for perceiving and experiencing the phenomenon of dance as lifestyle.

Kapila Vatsyayan, fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, recipient of the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, the Campbell Memorial and Chanda Memorial Medals of the Asiatic Societies of Bombay and Calcutta and Doctorate of Honoris Causa from the Banaras Hindu University and Rabindra Bharati University and Mount Holyoke College, USA, is a rare combination of an artist, performer, author, administrator, policy maker and presenter of exhibitions. For four decades now, she has worked tirelessly to place the Indian arts in their context of both function and metaphysics. Through her writing, lectures, performances and exhibitions she has established new methodologies and provided unique insights. She has pointed at the inter-relationships and inter-dependence of the textual; oral, classical and folk, the micro and the macro.

Each of her books has been a path finder. Classical Indian Dance in Literature and the Art is considered a world classic in the field of critical scholarship on a theory of aesthetics and history of interdependence of the arts. Traditional Indian Theatre, Multiple Streams, explores the phenomenon of unity and diversity in the variegated traditions of Indian theatre. The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts presents a concise framework for comprehending the metaphysical and ideational background of the arts, and today it is acknowledged as the first major authoritive multi-disciplinary work on the Indian Arts. Dance in Indian Painting as also the five monographs on the Gita Govinda and the Artistic Traditions of India explore the relationship of the text and the image. Through this body of work as also the exhibitions 'Image of Man' and 'Kham' both conceived be her, she unravels a holistic world view which is her vision.

Excerpts from Review:

....The infinite care and authenticity with which each little details of the myriad daces has been worked out is breathtaking. It is not a book for mere reading, but for study, to be assimilated in small doses, like an unfolding panoramic view.

- Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay

....This is by far the best book I have ever come across in the field of traditional art forms of rural and tribal India.

- Niharranjan Ray, Statesman

....with her characteristic tenacity and critical faculty, she has presented a study of the traditions of Indian folk dances, breaking fresh ground by bridging the work of cultural anthropologists and art historians.

- Sunil Kothari, Illustrated Weekly of India

....A valuable publication that should enlighten not only the social historians but actually anyone interested in India's cultural background.

- Amrita Bazar Patrika