One of the most popular and widely performed dance styles in India and around the world, Bharatanatyam has made the transition from its beginnings in the temples and courts of southern India to a highly respected international dance practice. In this study of a classical dance form, author Janet O'Shea tracks the choreographic transformations that accompanied the transfer of Bharatanatyam to the urban concert stage in the 1930s and 1940s. At Home in the World situates these changes within the political debates of their time and ties the concerns of this period to present day practice. The history of this dance is also a history of India itself and readers can trace various national struggles over gender identity, regionalism and globalism through O'Shea's narrative. With over 250 teachers in the United States alone, Bharatanatyam offers a remarkable case study of how a traditional art form moves into the world.

Performing politics in an age of globalization --
Tradition and the individual dancer --
Nation and region --
Women's questions --
The production of locality --
Toward a new transnationalism?