Mapping Critical Dance Studies in India has an ambitious premise that offers a much-needed breath of fresh air to reevaluate all that is dance from the subcontinent using a critical vantage point. Drawing from her rich academic background in social anthropology with a specialisation in dance studies, experiences as a dancer and choreographer, and expertise as a dance researcher and critical dance educator at a research university, Urmimala Sarkar Munsi highlights the age-old gaps that have glaringly remained in the nation’s blind spots. This mammoth project aims to “situate dance in the everyday lives of different communities in India" (vii) spanning various territories, classes, castes, genders, languages, and both urban and rural spaces.

In many ways, this book serves as a corrective to the problematic biases that pervade dance studies in India. First, this book seeks to quash external validation from traditionally authoritative Euro-American-centric spaces which stifle the research paradigm and limit the boundaries of dance studies in India. Second, through her dancer-researcher-educator positionality, Sarkar Munsi’s book is at the forefront of rewriting dance studies beyond the descriptive, historical and sociocultural foci and instead valourises its praxis and responses to contemporary issues. Third, and most compelling, is the corrective to the hierarchical narrowing of “‘pure’ dance” (14) that relegates all other forms of embodied expression as inferior which impedes the development of diverse methodologies for dance research.

This critical view on how dance ought to be circumscribed and circulated is outlined over six chapters. The second and third chapters outline the critical framework of the book. The former sets up the dancing body as the site and tool to unpack “ongoing social/cultural/political/and economic negotiations” (38). Charting the evolution of dance to the highly stylised Ajanta cave sculptures (50), Sarkar Munsi makes a case for reassessing “the liveness and responsive kinesthesia of bodies” (50) that was once seen in the pedestrian Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro (40) and the figures in Bhimbhetka rock shelters (43–44). This chapter creates an alternative and inclusive space for embodied practices that are part of the everyday lives and lived experiences of diverse communities in India (54–64) and outlines the phenomenology behind dance ecology that needs to be included in current academic discourse.

In chapter three, she highlights the current system’s oversimplification of dance categories in India. She draws on case studies across Adivasis and agrarian communities (75) to highlight the impact of heritage tourism and socio-political factors. National endorsement becomes a tall order when the kinesthetic but unstructured movements are seen as inferior to the clearly defined grammar of “pure” dance. While the preservation of classical dance forms has already been securely linked to national identity and heritage, and de-linked to any singular community, it is often disconcerting when applied to contexts like Kalbeliya (62). Sarkar Munsi presents new knowledge at the intersections of the overly simplistic categorization and argues for a framework beyond categories, socio-historical or diasporic, to capture their evolving position within the ecology of dance in India.

Chapter four is the cornerstone of this book. Sarkar Munsi discusses the body as a concept, philosophical discussion, and real-world phenomenon formed by and existing within society (170). The case studies including the Devadasis, Nachnis and Lavanis pry at the levels of visibility, social presence and absence of the dancer and the dancing body (157). Moving beyond former sociocultural discourses around marginalisation and exploitation, she utilises a feminist lens, concepts of agency and pleasure as/and power of the dancer to offer new knowledge to critical dance studies (165). Here, the patriarchal discussions return to the female body - its projection based on societal roles and as known to oneself, mostly accorded to social class and privilege - and to aspects of labour and bodily experiences of privilege and dispossession that permeate the social fabric. Reevaluating the upper-caste “pure” dance forms that privilege the Guru-Sishya Parambara, she questions gendered and non-gendered forces of power. She closes by reflecting on the body’s dispensable and precarious quality when reduced to an aesthetic stereotype (189).

The next chapter makes a crucial case for how dance should not remain hermetically sealed from the ecology in which it circulates. Aspects of cultural appropriation, international validation, and the nexus of theatre, dance, and cultural performance (208) in which Uday Shankar’s and Rabindranath Tagore’s works function are discussed. This is done alongside the evolving nature of dance, experimentations on dance vocabulary, and changing spaces and audiences (212). These present active academic attempts to move away from the nomenclature in which dance studies have been carried out in India.

To advance Sarkar Munsi’s primary goal, to advocate for a more critical perspective on dance; as a reviewer, I find it pertinent to engage in some critical dialogue. This is also one way to highlight contributions that are especially relevant to someone who does not identify as being part of the diaspora but as a dance and theatre practitioner-researcher.

The “rhizomatic” (1) or rhizomatic approach (Deleuze and Guattari Reference Deleuze, Guattari and Massumi1987) to reevaluate hierarchies within the complex ecosystems of Indian dance certainly allows for multiple narratives and practices to coexist, flourish, and foster a more inclusive and equitable environment for all dance forms. With meandering ideas, the book encourages rhizomatic thinking. In response to folk and tribal dance forms that are constantly evolving to reflect the lived experiences and cultural identities of their communities mentioned in chapter six, reframing the dancers via artistic citizenry emphasises the role of these dancers as active, engaged members of their societies, contributing to social and cultural change (Elliot, Silverman and Bowman Reference Elliott, Silverman and Bowman2016: 7). After all, art and its artists do not exist in a vacuum - continually reinterpreting and reimagining both history and heritage alike as living resources may prevent the worrying “museumisation” (8) that is applicable to the Global South.

Acknowledging that it is a mammoth challenge to adequately cover all about dance, certain regions and topics such as gender could perhaps warrant more discussions. The vast information in the table of contents may overwhelm uninitiated readers, and proofreading errors impact the overall polish. Nonetheless, this book gives voice to underrepresented forms suppressed by deep-seated hierarchical biases, valourises the praxis and contemporary responses of the dance ecology from an Indian dancer-researcher-educator, expands methodologies for dance research, and presents materials anew for the knowing reader. For these reasons, this book should be included as an essential text in any dance studies programme in India and beyond.