Introduction: All that is Dance -- Bodies that Dance: Critical Frames of Reference -- Understanding Categorisation: The ‘Tribal’ ‘Folk’, and the ‘Classical’ Dance Forms -- Patriarchy and the [In]Visible Line of Control: Power Structures and Space Making -- The Modern and the Contemporary in the Context of Dance in India -- To be continued: Thoughts on Dance as Response, Responsibility and Resistance -- Thoughts on Purpose and Criticality.

This book provides a critical understanding of dance studies in India, bringing together various embodied practices identified loosely as dance. It suggests an alternative reading of the history of patronage, policies, and institutionalized understanding of categories such as classical, folk, modern, popular, and Bollywood that hierarchizes some dances as 'more' dance than others. It is of great interest to scholars looking at performing arts such as dance as a tool for identity assertions. It offers diverse possibilities of understanding dance through its inherent sociopolitical possibilities as a participatory or presentational tool for communication. The multidisciplinary approach brings together perspectives from critical dance studies, anthropology, history, and gender studies to connect embodied archives of different communities to create an intersectional methodology of studying dance in India as a powerful but marginal expressive art practice. Accessible at multiple levels, the content is relevant for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers across dance, dance education, theatre, and performance studies.