"The practitioners of the arts [are] as being arranged in the alignment of a tree. The deep roots are the body of the sattras and the monks therein, who have preserved the art form over five centuries. The trunk is the monks who have renounced sattra life in their mature phase, after training authentically at the sattras and are now available without any religious duties and restrictions, for the promotion of the arts. The branches are many, and these are the urban, educated, often English speaking, articulate modern women who have taken to the dance in the last four decades. They have become the new voice for the form, even if their association with the wellspring, the institution of the sattras is merely formal."