Balasaraswati : her art & life
Douglas M. Knight (Author)
"A gripping account of the hereditary system of transmission in the performing arts through the biography of one of India's greatest dancers, T. Balasaraswati. Douglas Knight Jr. unfolds many layers of the personal, social, artistic, national, and international aspects of T. Balasaraswati's life."--Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, scholar and founder of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi
"A fascinating book written with knowledge, understanding, and talent celebrating the twentieth century's greatest bharata natyam performer, the incomparable Balasaraswati."--Charles L. Reinhart, director, American Dance Festival
"Douglas Knight brings a true insider's perspective coupled with an objective scholarly modality that makes this work uniquely valuable. This book illuminates many of the important issues associated with the emergence of bharata natyam in twentieth-century India in both its pre-and post-independence manifestations. In my view, it is required reading for anyone interested in Indian dance, music, and cultural history."--Daniel M. Neuman, author of The Life of Music in North India
This is the first complete biography of T. Balasaraswati (1918-1984), a dancer and musician from southern India who became recognized worldwide as one of the great performing artists of the twentieth century. In India she was a legend in her own time, acclaimed before she was thirty years old as the preeminent dancer of traditional bharata natyam. Balasaraswati was a passionate revolutionary, an entirely modern artist whose impact was proclaimed by some of the most prominent figures in contemporary dance in India and the West. Her art and life defined the heart of a tradition. Her story offers an extraordinary view of the matrilineal devadasi community and traditional artistic practice from which modern South Indian dance styles have emerged. This deeply engaging biography draws together Balasaraswati's personal account of her life and her reflections on the process of making dance and music. It includes the commentary of family members and dozens of contemporaries from throughout her fifty-year career, revealing hereditary artistic values and conventions that have virtually disappeared in modern India. The book is generously illustrated with rare historical photos and a duotone gallery of distinguished photographers' images of Balasaraswati's dancing. --Book Jacket
Print Book, English, 2010
Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut, 2010
Biography
xxii, 325 pages, 14 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 26 cm
9780819569066, 0819569062
311768695
"A driftless series book."