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.