Mandeep Raikhy is a dance practitioner with a particular interest in exploring the intersections between dance creation, performance, research and pedagogy. His choreographic work has been preoccupied with exploring the relationship between choreographic practice and political resistance. He has created several dance works, which have travelled across India and internationally over the years including Kampnagel, South Bank Centre and Singapore International Arts Festival. He toured with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, London, between 2005 and 2009; from 2009 to 2019, he was Managing Director at Gati Dance Forum; and between 2018 and 2020, he taught as Assistant Professor at the MA Performance Practice (Dance) at Ambedkar University, Delhi.

• List of ImagesList of Dialogue ContributorsForeword Manan Ahmed AsifIntroductionPART I: The Making of RitualsSetting Out? A Year Across India??Movement Exploration Practice of ListeningArtistic Practice in Times of Moral Panic Conversation with Wagner SchwartzThe Secular as a Belief Uttar PradeshFeminine Rituals Conversation with Venuri PereraMovement Exploration Embodying Softness In Search of a Ritual Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and GujaratMovement Exploration Making and Performing Rituals PART II: Inhabiting Public SpaceSeeking the Warmth of Other Bodies Madhya Pradesh and MaharashtraThe Body, the Museum and the Street Conversation with Avni SethiThe Secular at Sea GoaMovement Exploration Encountering Risk Making the Ocean GoaIntimacies in Public Spaces KeralaPart III: Identity, Community, ResistanceFamily, Caste, Community and the Muscle of Resistance Conversation with Sri Vamsi Matta and Nisha AbdullaMovement Exploration Unlocking the Spine Won’t You Come Out and Play? Karnataka Reimagining Divinity Conversation with Marc BratcherMovement Exploration Cultivating Allies Dance, Queerness and the Secular BangaloreMovement Exploration Constructing Intimacy Queer Borders Conversation with Asad Ali ZulfiqarPart IV: In the Shadows of the Nation-State Infections of Solitude Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and OrissaColoniality, Counterinsurgency, and the Secular Dialogue with María Regina Firmino-CastilloMovement Exploration Sensing a Space Creatures That Seek the Sun Himachal PradeshMoving Outside Nations and Religions Conversation with Ulduz AhmadzadehPART V: Embodied MultitudesThe Meeting of Pieces of Fabric Encounters Across GeographiesKinesthetic Empathy and Multicultural Secularities Conversation with Amin Farid (Soultari)Movement Exploration Embodying Contradictions Being in the Secular Body Conversation with j. boueyThe Secular in Motion An Archive of Conversations, Ideas and People In-the-Making New DelhiEndnotesBibliographyIndex

Mandeep Raikhy is a dance practitioner with a particular interest in exploring the intersections between dance creation, performance, research and pedagogy. His choreographic work has been preoccupied with exploring the relationship between choreographic practice and political resistance. He has created several dance works, which have travelled across India and internationally over the years including Kampnagel, South Bank Centre and Singapore International Arts Festival. He toured with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, London, between 2005 and 2009; from 2009 to 2019, he was Managing Director at Gati Dance Forum; and between 2018 and 2020, he taught as Assistant Professor at the MA Performance Practice (Dance) at Ambedkar University, Delhi.

• List of ImagesList of Dialogue ContributorsForeword Manan Ahmed AsifIntroductionPART I: The Making of RitualsSetting Out? A Year Across India??Movement Exploration Practice of ListeningArtistic Practice in Times of Moral Panic Conversation with Wagner SchwartzThe Secular as a Belief Uttar PradeshFeminine Rituals Conversation with Venuri PereraMovement Exploration Embodying Softness In Search of a Ritual Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and GujaratMovement Exploration Making and Performing Rituals PART II: Inhabiting Public SpaceSeeking the Warmth of Other Bodies Madhya Pradesh and MaharashtraThe Body, the Museum and the Street Conversation with Avni SethiThe Secular at Sea GoaMovement Exploration Encountering Risk Making the Ocean GoaIntimacies in Public Spaces KeralaPart III: Identity, Community, ResistanceFamily, Caste, Community and the Muscle of Resistance Conversation with Sri Vamsi Matta and Nisha AbdullaMovement Exploration Unlocking the Spine Won’t You Come Out and Play? Karnataka Reimagining Divinity Conversation with Marc BratcherMovement Exploration Cultivating Allies Dance, Queerness and the Secular BangaloreMovement Exploration Constructing Intimacy Queer Borders Conversation with Asad Ali ZulfiqarPart IV: In the Shadows of the Nation-State Infections of Solitude Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and OrissaColoniality, Counterinsurgency, and the Secular Dialogue with María Regina Firmino-CastilloMovement Exploration Sensing a Space Creatures That Seek the Sun Himachal PradeshMoving Outside Nations and Religions Conversation with Ulduz AhmadzadehPART V: Embodied MultitudesThe Meeting of Pieces of Fabric Encounters Across GeographiesKinesthetic Empathy and Multicultural Secularities Conversation with Amin Farid (Soultari)Movement Exploration Embodying Contradictions Being in the Secular Body Conversation with j. boueyThe Secular in Motion An Archive of Conversations, Ideas and People In-the-Making New DelhiEndnotesBibliographyIndex

Mandeep Raikhy is a dance practitioner with a particular interest in exploring the intersections between dance creation, performance, research and pedagogy. His choreographic work has been preoccupied with exploring the relationship between choreographic practice and political resistance. He has created several dance works, which have travelled across India and internationally over the years including Kampnagel, South Bank Centre and Singapore International Arts Festival. He toured with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, London, between 2005 and 2009; from 2009 to 2019, he was Managing Director at Gati Dance Forum; and between 2018 and 2020, he taught as Assistant Professor at the MA Performance Practice (Dance) at Ambedkar University, Delhi.

• List of ImagesList of Dialogue ContributorsForeword Manan Ahmed AsifIntroductionPART I: The Making of RitualsSetting Out? A Year Across India??Movement Exploration Practice of ListeningArtistic Practice in Times of Moral Panic Conversation with Wagner SchwartzThe Secular as a Belief Uttar PradeshFeminine Rituals Conversation with Venuri PereraMovement Exploration Embodying Softness In Search of a Ritual Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and GujaratMovement Exploration Making and Performing Rituals PART II: Inhabiting Public SpaceSeeking the Warmth of Other Bodies Madhya Pradesh and MaharashtraThe Body, the Museum and the Street Conversation with Avni SethiThe Secular at Sea GoaMovement Exploration Encountering Risk Making the Ocean GoaIntimacies in Public Spaces KeralaPart III: Identity, Community, ResistanceFamily, Caste, Community and the Muscle of Resistance Conversation with Sri Vamsi Matta and Nisha AbdullaMovement Exploration Unlocking the Spine Won’t You Come Out and Play? Karnataka Reimagining Divinity Conversation with Marc BratcherMovement Exploration Cultivating Allies Dance, Queerness and the Secular BangaloreMovement Exploration Constructing Intimacy Queer Borders Conversation with Asad Ali ZulfiqarPart IV: In the Shadows of the Nation-State Infections of Solitude Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and OrissaColoniality, Counterinsurgency, and the Secular Dialogue with María Regina Firmino-CastilloMovement Exploration Sensing a Space Creatures That Seek the Sun Himachal PradeshMoving Outside Nations and Religions Conversation with Ulduz AhmadzadehPART V: Embodied MultitudesThe Meeting of Pieces of Fabric Encounters Across GeographiesKinesthetic Empathy and Multicultural Secularities Conversation with Amin Farid (Soultari)Movement Exploration Embodying Contradictions Being in the Secular Body Conversation with j. boueyThe Secular in Motion An Archive of Conversations, Ideas and People In-the-Making New DelhiEndnotesBibliographyIndex