Shiva Onstage

When Uday Shankar and his company launched their inaugural world tour in Paris in 1931, European and American audiences received the ensemble enthusiastically. How could this group of foreigners have been so successful on Western stages? Bringing together numerous reviews on Shankar and early ethnographic writings, Diana Brenscheidt gen. Jost examines the distinct, often spiritually-biased, image dance and music from India held at the beginning of the 20 th century in the West, an image which would also crucially affect the perception of native dance and music traditions in India itself.

Diana Brenscheidt gen. Jost received her doctorate in ethnomusicology from the University of Cologne, Germany. Her research focuses on processes of transcultural exchange in arts and aesthetics, especially in (post)colonial societies.