Ketu H. Katrak, born in Bombay, India, is Professor in the Department of Drama at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), USA. She has served as Founding Chair of UCI's Department of Asian American Studies (1996-2004) and she is the author of Politics of the Female Body: Postcolonial Women Writers, Wole Soyinka and Modern Tragedy, and essays published in the fields of dance, drama and performance, south-Asian literary and cultural expression, and postcolonial and diaspora literature and culture.

"To read Katrak's book is to come away with a sense of delight in how far dance writing has come in capturing layered and multiple activities, perceptions, and knowledge." - Uttara Asha Coorlawala, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA

• List of Illustrations Series Preface Acknowledgements Preface: Multiple Idioms of Contemporary Indian Dance Glossary Introduction: Theoretical Frames: Ways of Looking at Contemporary Indian Dance Contested Histories of 'Revivals' of Classical Indian Dance and Early Pioneers of Contemporary Indian Dance  Abstract Dance with Rasa: Pioneers Astad Deboo and Shobana Jeyasingh Beyond Tradition: Contemporary Choreography by Masters of Traditional Indian Dance and Emerging Artists Innovating in Contemporary Choreography  Hybrid Artists and Transnational Collaborations: Chennai, Toronto, Kuala Lumpur Dancing in the Diaspora Part I: North America Dancing in the Diaspora Part II: Britain Conclusion: Ways of Looking Ahead Endnotes Bibliography Index