Kaustavi Sarkar is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and maintains dual careers in academia and in solo performance. Sarkar is an Odissi (eastern Indian traditional art form of Odisha) soloist, performing and touring for the past two decades. Sarkar investigates virtuosity in dance-theater as fostered in traditional Indian aesthetics through her research on choreography and creative processes. She is a leader in the field of dance and founded the journal South Asian Dance Intersections as well as the Odissi Odyssey conference held annually at UNC Charlotte. Her book Dance Technology and Social Justice: Individual and Collective Emancipation Through Embodied Techniques (McFarland, 2024) has been featured in Dance Studies Association's 2024-2025 Reading Seminars.