Tracing the Story of India’s Classical Kathak Dance – An Author Talk and Performance from Anjali Duva

Part of our Seven Lectures at Seven Gables Series

Dance, theatre, and pageantry played an important role at the House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association in the days of Caroline Emmerton. Join Anjali Mitter Duva, author of the historical novel Faint Promise of Rain for a journey to 16th century Rajasthan, India. Based on her travels to that desert region and on her study of kathak dance, a classical storytelling art that blends both Hindu and Muslim traditions and aesthetics, Anjali will tell the story of this classical art form as it traveled through India’s tumultuous history, mirroring the region’s own story as the dance was performed by Hindu temple women, then Muslim courtesans, then residents of red light districts, and finally by artists on the international stage. Anjali will include a short kathak dance demonstration, and books will be available for sale and signing.

Anjali Mitter Duva is an Indian-American writer raised in France. She is the author of Faint Promise of Rain (She Writes Press, 2014) and a co-founder of Chhandika, a non-profit organization dedicated to the Indian classical dance form called kathak. She is a frequent speaker at literary conferences, libraries, schools and cultural venues. Educated at Brown University and MIT, she lives near Boston where she is working on her next book and where she also runs a children’s book club and the Arlington Author Salon. Visit her at www.anjalimitterduva.com and on Twitter @AnjaliMDuva

Members: Free

Non-Members: $7.00 per person

To reserve your spot for this lecture please fill out the form below.  If you have any questions, please contact Ryan at 978-744-0991 x104.