Music and Dance as Everyday South Asia

Sarah L. Morelli is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Denver. Active as a scholar and performer, her work draws on training with sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan, kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das, and select disciples, and study in several regions of India and the US diaspora. Her book, A Guru’s Journey: Pandit Chitresh Das and Indian Classical Dance in Diaspora (2019), details the development of the ＂California gharana＂ of kathak. Sarah is a co-founder and soloist with the Leela Dance Collective and Artistic Director of Leela Institute of Kathak, Denver.

Zoe C. Sherinian is Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Oklahoma, a scholar-filmmaker, and percussionist. She is the author of Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology (2014) and has released two documentary films on the Dalit drummers of India. Her research has been supported by the University of Oklahoma and by Fulbright fellowships, the American Institute of Indian Studies, and the Asian Arts Council. Her current book project is titled Drumming Our Liberation: The Community, Cultural, and Sonic Power of the Parai Drum.