Evolution of Studies on Dance: On the Sidelines

India presents itself as a hub of diverse performing traditions such as dance, music and drama. Among these, dance as a subject of inquiry, has been ignored for quite a long span of time across disciplines. It was never considered as a serious subject of study, especially under the purview of objectivist methodologies. The present paper discusses the emergence and evolution of studies on dance and the factors and conditions which fuelled this process. It further specifically focuses on the domain of sociology and its nature of investigation on danceit entails. Sociological analyses of dance understand dance traditions in wider social, economic and political contexts in which they emerge and develop.It also underlines the interaction of dance with other social structures such as religion, gender, caste, class and how they shape each other.