This book provides the first ethnographic examination into the life of and the community formed around Pandit Chitresh Das, one of India’s most dynamic, outspoken, and captivating dancers. Born in Calcutta in 1944, Pandit Das immigrated to the United States in 1970 and was instrumental in establishing kathak, an Indian classical dance form, in the States. This work examines issues that arose in teaching, learning, and performing kathak in the United States over forty-five years. As a teacher, how does one transmit cultural and dance knowledge to culturally diverse groups of students? Within an artistic diaspora, how does a culture bearer–teacher maintain, modify, and frame dance repertoire, cultural norms associated with being a dancer, and philosophies surrounding the dance? And how do dancers negotiate the challenges of cultural expression in multicultural contexts? This ethnographic study of one of the longest-running sites of kathak transmission in the United States examines such questions, concluding that even in this hierarchical pedagogical tradition, students and teacher mutually navigate issues of artistic style and cultural meaning to create and sustain a dance culture.