Dance Theatre of India: Crossing New Aesthetics and Cultures

At the heart of Indian literature, Dance Theatre of India by Katia Legeret Manochhaya, is a book where the author explores the various rasas of Bharatanatyam and other dance forms, both as a dancer and a researcher. In the milieu of diverse linguistic and cultural interpretations, the book is a field of experimentation where the modalities for expressions and cultural differences would forever reinvent themselves. The photographic portraits of various live dance performances throughout the book uphold the author’s perspective for the readers. As one browses through the pages, one is transported to a world of dance and drama reading the various expressions of the artists in colourful costumes narrating stories from all over the world. The examples proposed are linked with knowledge which derives from the erudition of Sanskrit texts or from the collective creativity of artists from several cultures of India and other countries. Like the art forms it discusses, the book is a transcultural piece of work in its very essence.

Katia Legeret-manochhaya

Katia Légeret-Manochhaya is Professor of Aesthetics and Art Theory in the Department of Theatre at Paris 8 University, France and Director of the Laboratory of researches EA1573/EDESTA-Aesthetics, Sciences and Technologies of the Arts. Her main field of research comprises the twentieth-century European playwrights, stage directors and choreographers inspired by Asian performing arts, specifically from India. She is the author of many articles and books about Indian dances and theatre, including Les 108 pas du dieu Siva: Danse sacrée de l’Inde, Manuel traditionnel du Bharata-Nâtyam: Le danseur cosmographe and Danse contemporaine et theatre indien un nouvel art? She is also a professional artist in Bharatanatyam style and has an international career, starting at Chennai with Swarnamukhi (Tamil Nadu s State Artist) and, since 1986, she interprets Natyacharya K. Muralidhar Rao’s repertories (Karnataka, Pandanallur style). “Shiva-Rodin” (2013) and “Panchatantra/La Fontaine” (2010-2015) are among her stage creations with her company.