Great article on Cultural Diversity: Identity as a complex network

This thoughtful article, "Between Temple and Forum: South Asian Dance and the refiguring of cultural identities", is a special edition of the keynote address from the Navadisha 2000 conference, written by Ranjit Sondhi. Ranjit Sondhi originally presented this article as a keynote paper at Navadisha, a conference organized by the British organization SAMPAD, in Birmingham, UK on February 25, 2000.

Find the article at http://www.danceadvance.org/03archives/sondhi/index.html

Ranjit Sondhi is Chairman of SAMPAD; a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham, Westhill; and a Governor at the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC).

SAMPAD is a development agency for South Asian arts based in Birmingham, UK. It plays a significant role regionally, nationally and beyond, in promoting the appreciation and practice of the diverse artforms of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Navadisha 2000 ('New Directions') was a major international dance conference that took place from 24- 26 February 2000 in Birmingham and Coventry, UK. As South Asian dance in the UK continues to evolve and grow, and similarly around the world, Navadisha 2000 was envisioned as a celebration of the various South Asian dance idioms and a timely evaluation of the developments of the past 50 years.

The first conference of its type and scale to be held in the UK, Navadisha 2000 was designed to provide the opportunity to view, discuss, debate and reflect on the South Asian dance scene and programming opportunities, as well as to identify models of good practice that could be shared.

This article comes from the Dance Advance website www.danceadvance.org ... they have other great articles too... worth checking out.

- R