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'Illicit' Dance; The Purpose of War

Laurie Taylor hears about the bar dancers and transgender performers who work in the shadows of the official arts. Also, is war ever a force for good?

'Illicit' dance in India. Laurie Taylor talks to Anna Morcom, Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, about her extensive research into marginalised dancers in contemporary South Asia. From bar dancers to transgender erotic performers, she has chronicled their relationship with 'legitimate' performing arts; their struggles against stigma and the ways in which post colonial nation building has excluded these 'non elite' carriers of culture. Also, can war ever be a force for good? The historian, Ian Morris, argues that war, as well as provoking countless deaths & horrors, has also, in the very long term, allowed us to create peaceful societies.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

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28 minutes

Last on

Mon 19 May 2014 00:15

Anna Morcom

Senior Lecturer, Department of Music, Royal Holloway University of London


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Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance: Cultures of Exclusion
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN-10: 0199343543
ISBN-13: 978-0199343546

Ian Morris

Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics, Department of Classics, Stanford University, USA


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War: What is it good for?: The role of conflict in civilisation, from primates to robots
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN-10: 184668417X
ISBN-13: 978-1846684173

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  • Wed 14 May 2014 16:00
  • Mon 19 May 2014 00:15

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