Ranjabati : A Dancer and Her World : Selected Writings of Ranjabati Sircar
Contents: Introduction. I. Towards a new Indian dance: 1. Contemporary Indian dance: question of training. 2. State of body, state of mind. 3. Navanritya--a contemporary methodology: history, theory, practice. 4. The dancer and the critic. 5. New moves. 6. Varied approaches to Indian dances. 7. Metier, being. 8. Contemporary Indian dance. II. Rethinking Rabindranath Tagore: 9. Tagore and dance. 10. Dance unbound. 11. Looking afresh at Prakriti. 12. The deep sound of the soul. 13. Teeth. III. The modern in perspective: between east and west: 14. Shankar and beyond. 15. A fusion that works. 16. It all began with Isadora Duncan. 17. Alien form. 18. Indian dance in the West. 19. Dancing to the master\'s tune. 20. Shedding the burden of colour. 21. Environment for modern dancers. IV. Performance reviews: 22. Spontaneity as form. 23. Expressionism. 24. Carolyn Carlson. 25. Liberation through dance. 26. Eclectic, committed, individual. 27. Finding the \'place in between\'. 28. Vibrant and energetic. 29. Marred by a self-conscious didacticism. 30. Clear and true as a haiku. 31. Exuberant explosion. 32. Of Shakespeare, standing eggs, sand and bearded ladies. 33. Exploration of human behaviour. 34. Gilles Petit. V. Travels: 35. Festival in Manila. 36. Dancing about China. 37. Encounter in the wilderness. VI. Gender: 38. Games of power. 39. The Bengali woman: from Binodini to Sananda. VII. Creative explorations: 40. Matter and energy: working with Koothu-i-pattarai. 41. Cassandra: programme notes. 42. Cassandra: first script. 43 Oblique: an interview with Ranjabati. 44. Repertoire of Ranjabati Sircar. Sources.
"Aishika Chakraborty, dancer and dance scholar, brings together a comprehensive selection of the dance writings of Ranjabati Sircar (1963-99)--essays, seminar papers, interviews, reviews, production notes--illustrating a highly critical and percipient mind discovering and articulating fresh possibilities in the new Indian dance; and critiquing a wide range of international performances from an original point of view; with photographs by Avinash Pasricha, Dayanita Singh and Ray Clark, showing the extremely talented dancer-choreographer in performance. Chakraborty\'s long introduction offers a penetrating study of Ranjabati, who committed suicide at the age of 36, right in the midst of an intense phase of choreographic activity."
