ABSTRACT
In 1983, I produced and directed Circles-Cycles Kathak Dance, a 28-minute color film shot in New Delhi while I was a research fellow with the American Institute of Indian Studies. Kathak, a classical dance form of North India, traces its origins back more than a thousand years. It is the only Indian dance form that combines influences of both Hindu and Islamic cultures. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, kathak rose to prominence by being lavishly cultivated in the royal courts of the nawabs and maharajas. The subject matter of the kathak repertoire ranges from simple themes relating to village life to sublime experiences having to do with the Hindu deities. This repertoire also includes elements of “pure dance,” which is concerned with matters of rhythmic discipline. The central theme underlying the film, like so much of India’s religious and cultural thinking, focuses on the concepts of circles and cycles and how these symbols are expressed in dance, as well as in music and poetry.
