Dancing in Thatha's Footsteps Book Review

Dancing in Thatha's Footsteps

Written by Srividhya Venkat

Illustrated by Kavita Ramchandran
Expected publication by Yali Books: June 30, 2021

Review

Dancing in Thatha's Footsteps is the story of an Indian-American boy who wants to learn the ancient dance form bharatanatyam, for which his sister takes lessons. When the girls in her class and the boys in his martial arts class belittle him, he unhappily buries his desire. Despite his self-denial, everything around him recalls bharatanatyam. Ultimately, his thatha performs for the girls' dance class to rave applause, and the boy is invited to be the school's first male student. Back matter explains the history of bharatanatyam and the roles of male dancers, and introduces famous male professional dancers.

I like Dancing in Thatha's Footsteps for the affirmation of a boy's artistic desire. T and I enjoy the dance exhibitions at our museum's Diwali festival, and I'm wondering if what we've seen were bharatanatyam performances. We're grateful for the opportunity to enjoy different forms of art with T at our museum, and we each engage in our own artistic pursuits – seeing explicit encouragement of male artists is of particular importance to us. Honest in the acknowledgement that male aspiring artists may be met with criticism, Venkat uplifts young artists by recognizing resistance they may meet and denouncing sexist stereotypes. Dance as a non-gendered art form is a concept I can get behind. 

Beautiful. Encouraging. Emotional. I recommend Dancing in Thatha's Footsteps.

May I wish a Happy Father's Day to all my readers who are fathers and father figures!

Note: A review copy was provided upon request for the purpose of this honest review.