India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective

Through an analysis both broad and deep of primary and secondary sources, ethnography, iconography and current performance practice, this enquiry undertakes a critical approach to the history of kathak dance and presents new data about hereditary performing artists, gendered contexts and practices, and postcolonial cultural reclamation. The account that emerges places kathak and the Kathaks firmly into the living context of North Indian performing arts.

Margaret E. Walker is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Musicology at Queen's University, Kingston, where she is currently serving as Director of the School of Music. Her research focuses primarily on kathak dance and its historiography, but also includes work on gender, class, diaspora, and colonialism.

Contents: Preface; Kathak dance today; Colonialism and nationalism; The Kathaks; In search of an ancient Kathak; Voices from the18th and 19th centuries; Hereditary performing communities in North India; More hereditary performers: the women; Nationalism and revival: the dance of the Kathaks; Classicization and curriculum: Kathak dance; Conclusion: a history of Kathak; Bibliography; Index.