Classical Dance in Contemporary India

I was invited to a seminar in Toronto a few years back. I was supposed to read a paper, but I danced as well – a kind of ‘food for thought’ presentation, if you like. A lecture–demonstration, except I was not explaining the dance but simply talking about my journey with the compositions I was presenting and what concerned me about the dance along that journey. At the start, a young Tamil dancer who introduced me said, ‘Leela is an example of a classical dancer.’ And then added, ‘unlike me, for instance, who is a “traditional” dancer’! I wondered what he meant. That the one lacked classicism? And the other paid no tribute to tradition? As you can imagine, I changed my script quite a bit that day!