Programme Overview
About the Programme
The Department of Performing Arts offers a Doctoral programme in three major categories: Dance, Music and Theatre. Scholars are invited to pursue their doctorate in a diverse range of research fields within Performing Arts.
Theatre and Performance Studies offers an interdisciplinary and practice-oriented environment for advanced research into theatre, performance, and their wider social, cultural, and political contexts. The programme encourages diverse and emerging methodologies, including practice as research, performance ethnography, historiography, archival research, dramaturgy, scenography, and embodied and performative methodologies. It welcomes research engaging with postdramatic and contemporary performance practices, new approaches to acting and performer training, devised and collaborative practices, and evolving forms of dramaturgy and scenography. The programme also supports critical enquiries into caste, race, gender, indigeneity, marginality, cultural memory, and politics of representation through postcolonial and decolonial approaches. Bringing theatre and performance into dialogue with anthropology, history, cultural studies, sociology, and related disciplines, the programme encourages theoretically rigorous and critically engaged research that responds to changing artistic practices and contributes to new understandings of performance, society, and culture.
Classical Music bridges historical scholastic theory (Lakshana) with contemporary performance practice (Lakshya). The program develops dual competencies by integrating classical textual criticism and manuscript studies with modern computational acoustic tools . The program goes beyond standard music studies by exploring how music connects to psychology, human health, history, and culture. Scholars also learn how to conduct hands-on field research across various environments, from traditional temple rituals to modern concert halls. Ultimately, CHRIST trains student-performers to blend live music with deep academic research, turning rich artistic traditions into published scholarly work.
Dance Studies provides a space for advanced scholarly and creative exploration of dance as an artistic practice, embodied knowledge, and cultural expression. The programme encourages original research that connects theory, practice, history, and contemporary developments in dance.
Research may focus on Indian classical traditions such as Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Manipuri, Mohiniyattam, and Sattriya, alongside folk, ritual, community, contemporary, and experimental dance practices. Areas of inquiry may include dance history and aesthetics, choreography, pedagogy and training, performance practice, music and movement, embodiment, documentation, transmission of tradition, and evolving forms of dance.
The programme also invites critical and interdisciplinary research examining body, identity, gender, caste, community, cultural memory, heritage, representation, and changing social contexts. Drawing on disciplines such as performance studies, anthropology, history, cultural studies, and sociology, the programme supports innovative research that contributes to both dance scholarship and contemporary artistic practice.
Admissions
Eligibility & Fee Structure
Eligibility Criteria
Fee Structure (Indicative)
How to Join
Admission Process
1
Register
- Register with your Email ID
- Login to the Admission Portal
2
Apply Online
- Fill the Application Form
- Pay Application Fee
3
Entrance Test
- Entrance Test (If Applicable)
- Assessment
- Interview
4
Result
- Check login page for result
- If selected, Offer Letter attached
5
Fee Payment
- Pay Course Fee Online
- Complete Admission Process
Ready to Apply?
Applications are open. Deadline: 29-Nov-2026.