The Repertoire

The Repertoire is the publishing platform of Relearning the Nautch dedicated to research, writing, and critical reflection on dance history, music history, performance studies, cultural history, and South Asian performance traditions.

 Through essays, research papers, reviews, and source notes, The Repertoire explores subjects including Kathak, courtesan culture, tawaifs, Indian classical dance, Hindustani music, cultural memory, archives, heritage, and the histories of performance in South Asia.

The Repertoire seeks to make scholarly research accessible to a wider audience while encouraging critical engagement with questions of tradition, authenticity, historicity, gender, patronage, and cultural change. We are particularly interested in overlooked histories, forgotten performers, archival sources, and the social worlds that shaped dance and music traditions. Our publications bring together historical research, archival exploration, performance analysis, and interdisciplinary approaches drawn from dance studies, musicology, ethnomusicology, history, anthropology, and cultural studies.

Within The Repertoire, readers will find:

As the publishing arm of Relearning the Nautch, The Repertoire contributes to the broader mission of documenting, preserving, and critically examining the histories of Kathak, courtesan culture, Indian classical dance, Hindustani music, and South Asian performance traditions.