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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproduction Further reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. DANCER UDAY SHANKAR: INTEGRATING

EAST AND WEST

by

Jayantee Paine

submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Science

of the American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

in

Performing Arts, Dance

Signature of Committee Members:

Chair ‘ Nmrna Prevotsr~p y r iA juxJL, Brupe C. Robertson 'I'/huJLlut-c H. Donahue

Dean^f College of Arts and Science

Date 2000

American University

Washington, D.C. 20016 MEMCM OMVERSm UMMU |

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To mvv 4oarents

Ramen & Julie Paine

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DANCER UDAY SHANKAR: INTEGRATING

EAST AND WEST

By

Jayantee Paine

ABSTRACT

Indian dancer, choreographer and teacher Uday Shankar (1900-1977) was heavily

influenced by western dance and integrated many western dance ideas into all aspects of

his work in dance. He did this during the 1920s through the late 1930s in a period when

Indian dance was heavily traditional and isolated from western ideas. Analysis consists of

Shankar’s performance background, choreography and teaching methods. Uday Shankar

is a very important dance figure in India and also was the first Indian dancer to tour

Europe and America. His company continues to exist in India after his death, and is

directed by his wife Amala Shankar. The teaching methods he developed are also

continued today under his wife’s direction and by his daughter and daughter-in-law.

ii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE

This is the first study to fully analyze Uday Shankar’s choreography and

U « tM fl o«^ mo • T« <4< J n« « a n J f U ^ W « n ^ n r icaciiiiih, itis iiiiiuciicc uii cuiiidiipuiui^ iaiuian uaucc, emu uic tuiiuiiuauuu Gi ilia tuCaS

through the current company. In his choreography, Shankar was able to integrate ideas

from dance as it developed in Europe and America. The author is able to provide a

unique perspective because of her access to private videos and her period of study with

Shankar’s son. The author is also an expert in traditional Indian dance forms, and this

allows for in-depth comparison and analysis of the ways in which Shankar’s work

developed and went beyond these forms. Shankar’s teaching methods alsc provide an

important perspective on his integration of Indian and contemporary western dance ideas.

His studios attracted many students; his influence was far reaching. A careful look at the

company and studio today shows how Shankar’s ideas have been developed further with

new and important influences from contemporary dance. This thesis is based on oral

interviews, private dance videos, rehearsals, and classes with Shankar and his family. The

author will use her own training and background as source material. The author’s study

and training is in two classical forms of Indian dance: Odissi and Mohiniattam.

Reviews of Shankar’s performances will be used. Videotapes of specific

choreographic works have been made available to the author. These include excerpts and

complete versions of the following choreography: “Machinery,” “Snanam,” “Mother,”

and “Dream.” Personal experience in performing and rehearsing with Shankar’s son will

also be included as a primary source. Secondary sources will include theses and

in

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. dissertations such as Ruth Abraham’s The Life and Art of Udav Shankar (1986) and

Uttara Asha Coorlawala’s Classical and Contemporary Indian dance: Overview, criteria

and a choreographic analysis. (1994). Books will also be used as secondary sources, such

as Mohan Khokar’s His Dance. His Life (1983) and Traditions of Indian Classical Dance

(1979), and Dibyendu Ghosh's The Great Shankars; Udav. Ravi (1983).

iv

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my teacher, mentor and advisor. Dr. Naima Prevots, Chair,

Performing Arts Department and Director of Dance, for guiding me and encouraging me

to explore the topic of Uday Shankar’s contribution to Indian dance. Her knowledge and

support gave me the confidence to proceed with this paper. I am also grateful to Mrs.

Ann Donahue for all the wonderful things I learned in her classes and from watching her

dance compositions. I am grateful to Dr. Bruce Robertson. Director of South Asia

Studies at the State Department Foreign language Institute, for sharing his knowledge of

Indian arts, culture and studies with me. He constantly encouraged me to speak about and

demonstrate Indian dances for American Diplomats going to India. I would like to thank

both Mrs. Donahue and Dr. Robertson for reading my paper.

My mother and father's perseverance in continuing studies of the dance arts of

India, furthering my dance education at the University and devoting my time to

performing arts, is one of the reasons I was able to begin this research project. I am

blessed that they are the driving forces behind all of my artistic and dance endeavors. I

graciously thank Dr. Pradeep Ganguly for being there for me at all times during the

writing of this paper, for believing in me, patiently encouraging me to finish and waiting

for me.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...... ii

PREFACE...... iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... v

Chapter

1. DANCE IN INDIA FROM 1920-1945...... 1

2. UDAY SHANKAR’S BACKGROUND AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT...... 10

3. SELECTIONS FROM SHANKAR’S CHOREOGRAPHY...... 34

4. UDAY SHANKAR’S TEACHING METHODS AND PHILOSOPHY...... 48

5. CONCLUSION ...... 59

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 65

VI

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I

INDIAN DANCE - 1920-1945

TTHn*roUuji JiiuiiAiU 'voc»>uO ao ptOiiwwt m in utuiuii Tn/^ion tiiUUwuirnoHorn uuitwv.Honra TK<» i tiw ronoiccqnrpt wiiuijOuiiwv **4in LTnHionitututt

dance, which began in the late 1920s and flowered in the 1930s, is part of Uday

Shankar’s development as an artist. His major contributions manifested themselves

during the last years of British colonial rule; before India’s independence in 1947,

Shankar benefited from the pioneering work of several individuals and in turn was able to

influence future generations.

Indian dance was practically dormant in the early twentieth century because of

British colonialism, and there was complete degradation and disrespect for classical

dances demonstrated by the respectable and notable members of society, both British and

Indian. The arts of dancing and singing were shunned as base, disgraceful and

scandalous.

Participation in dance events had become unacceptable by the late 19th century in

India because of puritanical British colonialism and the disturbing notion that there was a

connection between erotic sculptures in some of the temples and actual Hindu dancing.

Most forms of dance (religious, ceremonial or communal dance) had degenerated into

practices usually associated with social undesirables. What the dominant British did not

understand as this time was that spirituality had always been at the core of Indian

classical dance art. Dance was synonymous with spirituality, and it was meant to reflect

L

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the divine experience of communion with higher beings. Singing and dancing had

historically been an essential part of the ritual services in temples throughout India.

The tradition of dedicating dancing girls to deities of Hindu shrines is very

ancient. Devadasis (“Servants of God”) were dedicated girls and women who danced

before the Gods during various times of the day. They were once attached to temples in

the Northern State of Kashmir, as well as the states of Bengal, Orissa, Rajasthan,

Moharashtra, Andhra, Tamilnadu and Kerala. Throughout the centuries, dance formed an

important part of the social and religious festivals of the peopled

Religious patronage for the Devadasis waned by the early 19th century. Their

original function shifted, and they became entertainers and prostitutes for wealthy

landowners and Muslim princes. Rich Indian noblemen started to employ these

Devadasis in their palaces. Large sums of money and gifts were provided to the teachers

and dancers so that the dances were addressed to the Maharaja or the Prince instead of to

a deity. Girls and women began to perform lewd and suggestive dances at village

weddings to entertain foreign visitors. Foreigners wrote articles that described all Indian

dancing as abominable, and this may have influenced Western-educated Indians to

disown dancing as a vulgar art form. The result was that from the middle of the

nineteenth century to the first quarter of the twentieth century, dance as a respected form

of expression and reflection of religion in India was relatively unknown.

At the end of the nineteenth century, a group of English-educated Indians started a

movement that came to be known as the “anti-nautch campaign,” and there were

1 Patnaik, Dhirendranath, Odissi Dance. Orissa: Goswami Press. 1971.

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demands for laws to forbid dancing.2 The word Nautch is the anglicized version of

various Indian vernacular words for dance, all deriving from the Sanskrit rootnac.

Nautch dancing and the women who performed Nautch were considered to be without

merit or value. The movement started in the South but quickly found sympathetic

supporters in the North and other parts of India. This movement was aimed at eradicating

customs and manners displayed by women that were considered to be injurious to

society, and dancing and singing fell under that category. On 9 November 1892, the

Madras Hindu Social Reform Association was founded to promote female education,

marriage and domestic reforms. One of the conditions of membership was not to employ

nautch women for singing, dancing or other purposes. Nautch women included

Devadasis and other dancing and singing women.3 However, there was an equally

powerful voice against the social stigma attached to the art.

Poet, writer, artist, painter, and Noble Prize winner for literature, Rabindranath

Tagore of Bengal tried to stimulate interest in Indian dancing beginning in 1917. During

his visit to Sylhet in the State of Assam, he saw Manipuri dancing, and recognized in the

art a need for revival of the dance for larger groups. Its lyrical beauty, romantic themes,

graceful movements and unique costumes charmed him. He brought dancers and

teachers out of this region to teach at his cultural center at Shantiniketan in West Bengal.

He was hopeful that this might save the almost defunct dance arts of India. He founded

the Visva-Bharati in December 1921, and proclaimed that the university was India’s

invitation to the world. The Visva-Bharati was organized as a non-profit society located

: Ambrose, Kav.Classical Dances and Costumes of India London: A.& C. Black, Ltd.. 1950. 3 Marglin, Frederique Anffel. Wives of the God-Kine: The Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985. 6-8.

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in Shantiniketan (abode of peace), in the Birbhum district of the state of West Bengal.

The Calcutta Municipal Gazette. Tagore Memoriam Special Supplement a book printed

in 1986 states, “Visva-Bharati represents India where she has her wealth of mind which

is for all. Visva-Bharati acknowledges India’s obligation to offer to others the hospitality

ofher best culture and India’s right to accept from others their best.”4

In addition to academic courses, Tagore’s Visva-Bharati’s curriculum offered

music and dance classes. He conceived the idea to gather portions of the vast materials

available in dance from various regions, and present it artistically and sympathetically to

audiences. Dance was taught by teachers who were brought from the states of Manipur

and Gujarat, and from South India. The poet started season festivals in 1922. Tagore

encouraged dance recitals, which were held on a regular basis during festivals. The poet

himself personally guided the students in the dancing and singing.5 Tagore presented

many of his plays as dance-dramas or dance-opera using his Shantinekan style of dance,

which had roots in the Mcmipuri tradition but had a texture of its own. Later, other forms

of Indian dances such as Bharatanatyam and Kathakali were introduced. His play “The

Worship of the Dancing Girl” was performed by Gauri Devi, the daughter of India’s

celebrated painter Nandalal Bose. She perhaps was the first non-professional dancer to

appear on stage during this revival period in Calcutta.

Tagore traveled all over the world observing dances of various cultures. He had

an appreciation for all forms of dance and directed his students and teachers to

4 Rabindranath Tagore. (1861-1941) Bengali poet and statesman. He won the Noble Prize for literature in November 1913 for his “Gitanjali” (Song-offerings), which was acclaimed by the Swedish Academy as the greatest piece of idealistic work in literature for the year. The Calcutta Municipal Gazette. Tagore Memorial Supplement. Calcutta: Information and Pubic Relations Department, 1941.

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incorporate movements from different dance styles in their work. Gradually, interest in

dancing was beginning to form in West Bengal due to the stimulating influence of

Rabindranath Tagore and his arts center and school.

In southern India, the ancient dance and drama forms, such as Kathakali and

Mohiniattam, were becoming extinct because of western influences and the decline of

royal patronage. Poet Vallathol Narayan Menon (1877-1949) of Kerala was greatly

interested in these arts. In 1930, Vallathol established an institution for the

reestablishment of Kathakali and Mohiniattam.. The Institution was called Kerala Kala

Mandalam. The dance-drama Kathakali, being a male-dominated art form, required a

little rekindling to arouse interest. Vallathol had found a teacher for Mohiniattam, which

was an all-female dance form, but no respectable girl would come forward to learn the

art. The director of the institution, Mukunda Raja, had to persuade his tenant’s daughter

to enroll as a student. The tenant’s daughter, Thangamani, became the first student of

Kerala Kala Mandalam to learn the dance form Mohiniattam. She later married the

eminent Kathakali Guru of Kerala, Gopinath, and they both continued to teach the dances

of Kerala.6

It was in the 1920s that dance began to emerge again in Madras, located in the

state of Tamil Nadu, and it spread throughout southern India. The man who played the

most important part in the critical struggle for survival of dancing there was E. Krishna

Iyer. Trained as a lawyer by profession, he cherished an unquenchable desire to see the

once sacred temple dance form of Eharatanatyam revived and restored to its former

6 Radhakrishna, Geeta.Mohiniattam-the dance of the enchantress. Mumbai: St. Fmcis m Press. 1997.

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prestige. Iyer learned all he could of the dance himself and advocated that young

ladies of respectable birth also learn the dance. His requests to continue the ancient

traditional dance art and preserve the tradition were misinterpreted in a negative way by

social reformers to be that he supported ‘fallen women.’ The members of the Madras

Hindu Social Reform Association believed that the true character of dancing girls was

that of ‘fallen-women.’ Iyer’s intentions were also misinterpreted because the dance form

was connected with the Devadasis, upon whom society looked down.

From 1925-1932, he fought an historic battle and brought about a permanent and

successful renaissance for the classical dance and dance drama in South India. Iyer

decided to dress up as a woman and perform the dance himself in the incisive and

powerful Pandanallur style, which was unknown to the public at that time. He danced in

films, on concert stages, at political meetings, and anywhere else people assembled to

take notice of his dancing. Next, he began to assemble all the remaining dancers of the

Bharatanatyam style and presented them wherever he could. The Musical Societies

devoted to the preservation and conservation of arts in Madras began to invite Iyer and

his dancers and took notice of the importance of this art form. Soon there started a

competition between the Musical Societies as to who could book the best dancers and

who could pay them the most money.

Iyer wrote profusely in all the Tamil papers and journals. He wrote books and

articles and was in great demand as a lecturer, building up a reputation as a champion of

Indian dance art. In 1934 Iyer presented his prize discovery, a descendant of a Devadasi,

Balasaraswathi, in the All-India Music Conference held in the city of Beneras in the state

of Uttar Pradesh. Balasaraswathi had a voluptuous charm and a talent for dancing which

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put her in a class by herself. She became one of the greatest exponents of the

Bharatanatyam dance style of the South.7

By the 1930s, women of high social status from affluent backgrounds and

belonging to the Brahaman (highest caste of people in India) began to learn dancing from

great Gurus. One such person was Rukmini Devi Arundel of Adyar, Madras, who

studied Bharatanatyam under Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai and Mylapur Guri Amnia in

the state of Tamil Nadu. She gave her first public performance in 1936. Many girls and

women of the upper class were influenced by her dancing and came forward with hopes

of studying the classical dance. Today, Rukmini Devi is known not only for her dancing

and brave efforts to revive the classical dance ofBharatanatyam , but also for her

contribution to the renaissance of dance through her institution called the Kalakshetra Art

Centre in Adyar, Madras.

Another reputable woman in the Indian society who became a dance performer

and established her own institution was Leila Sokhey, an affluent member of the Bengali

aristocratic society of Calcutta. She was known as Madame Menaka (the name of a

heavenly dancer in Indian mythology). In India, she was trained in the Lucknow school

of Kathak (North Indian classical dance) dance and studied the Manipuri and Kathakali

styles as well. She helped place Indian dancing on the map both in India and abroad by

presenting solo and duet dance compositions. She was popular for her group dances and

ballets. (Ballet was introduced in India purely as a result of Western influence. In ballet

there is choreography, there is a definite story or theme, there is decor and there is purely

orchestral music, and no songs are used). She organized the first ballet company in India,

' Bhavani,Enakshi The Dance in IndiaBombay: D.B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. Private, Ltd.,1965.

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and in 1938, she established her own school, Nritalayam School of the Dance, in

Maharashtra state.

Another well-known name in the world of Indian classical dance is Ram Gopal

from Southern India. Ram Gopal was the first male dancer to revert to the ancient

tradition depicted in the temple sculptures and performed Bharatanatyam both in India

and abroad. He had already studied Bharatanatyam by the time he met E. Krishna Iyer in

1940. Iyer encouraged him to travel with him to Tanjore, in the state of Tamil Nadu and

study the ancient style in its virile aspect, the Pandnllar style with its broad sweeping

movements, powerful footwork and incredible leaps. Iyer then promoted him as the

emerging male dancer in the Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam. Ram Gopal

established a name for himself in presenting solos and ballet forms of Bharatanatyam and

Kathakali both in India and in Europe. He contributed much towards the preservation of

the classical dance forms in their purity in the world of international dance. He brought

an understanding of the highest concepts and artistic ideals of India’s classical and folk

dances to various countries abroad. He lived in England for most of his life, where he

made several successful appearances in leading theatres with his company. Ram Gopal

recently passed away in England.

One factor that contributed to the rebirth of India’s dance was Anna Pavlova’s

dance tour of Asia in 1929, when she visited India. She was a woman and a dancer who

had achieved distinction on the basis of art; she had performed “Hindu Ballets,” which

were western in technique but based on Indian themes; and she had used Uday Shankar

as her dance partner. Ted Shawn, Ruth St. Dennis, La M en and Ragini Devi were

Americans who played a part in the reawakening of the dance in India. After their tour of

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the orient in 1925-1926, the Denishawn Dance Company made America aware of Hindu

dance and culture in their modem dance interpretations of Indian themes. La Meri

(Russell Meriwether Hughes) was from Texas, USA. She had traveled to India as a

dance scholar and had studied Bharatanatyam. She presented Ram Gopal, whose dance

toobninno VtUiWiiWM tjiAl i A W rpnutotioti* V^UiWWVti W A Tnfjion AAAlAAVtAA H?>ncinnMUiiWUig oKrnoHUU I < J UU . Pqmni i- * V A , onuii A t rnorioor>uttvi tWutt

dancer, discovered Gum Gopinath and introduced the Kathakali dance tradition in India

and in America.

Dance has been revived as a national art in India since India’s independence from

British colonial rule in 1947. The ancient classical dances such as Odissi and Kuchipudi

have come to be known and performed outside of their particular regions. Folk and tribal

dances have been given national recognition by being presented in the Republic Day

parade and on stage during various festivals. After independence, many people were

involved in the restoration of dance and in the wake of the revival of the dance, began to

produce ballets in the “free dance” or creative and non-classical style. Mohan Khokar

states in his book, Traditions of Indian Classical Dance. “The first ballets in India were

largely in the free dance style. This is a style not based specifically on any known

tradition of Indian dance but stemming from the individual choreographer’s own

inspiration and genius.” Many Indian artists of classical and non-classical styles have

become prominent through their solo or group artistic endeavors since independence.

However, both the free dance style and the art of presenting dances in a ballet form in

India owe their influence to the original creative genius, Uday Shankar.

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BACKGROUND AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT

The great Indian desert state of Rajasthan was called Rajputana in British India,

and it consisted of an assortment of big and small princely states. One of these princely

states was called Jhalawar, which was ruled by Maharaja (king) Rana Zalim Singh II

about a century ago. After Zalim Singh was deposed and deported out of Rajasthan

because of the displeasure of the British Government, the next person in line of

succession was Rana Bhawani Singh. He became the ruler of Jhalawar on February 6,

1899. One of his cabinet ministers, Balabadhra Singh, was a skillful administrator who

came from a royal family and was appointed to high office. In 1893, the British

government decided to utilize his services for dealing with some of the troublesome

princes. He was appointed as an attache to the Governor General, and posted at one of

Rajasthan’s sensitive outposts, Mount Abu. In 1898, Shayam Shankar Chowdhury,

Uday Shankar’s father, visited Singh’s palace and they became friends. As a result, he as

appointed to several positions, gradually moving up in prestige. At first, Shayam

Shankar Chowdhury was appointed as the teacher of a local high school, then he became

private secretary of the Maharaja Bhawani Singh. Afterwards he was promoted to a

Minister’s position, and, in 1922, Shayam Shankar was appointed the Prime Mininster of

Jhalawar.

Shayam Shankar Chowdhury was a Bengali Brahim (the highest caste of people

in India), and a scholar. He was bom into a prosperous family of landowners from Kalia,

10

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a small town in Jessore district, now in the country of Bangladesh. Shayam Shankar had

seven sons, but three of them died at an early age. His wife, Hemangini Devi, was an

orthodox Hindu woman. Their first son was born in the city of Udaipur in Rajasthan on

December 8, 1900, and they named him Uday. The name Uday means ‘the rising’ or

‘emergence,’ and Shankar is another name for Shiva, who is revered, in Hindu mythology

as Lord of the Dance.1 The other sons were called Rajandra, Debendra, and Robindra

(Ravi Shankar). Although all of the boys were initiated into dancing in their early years

by their elder brother Uday, Rajendra Shankar took to writing and administrative work,

Debendra Shankar continued as a dance teacher, and Ravi Shankar established himself as

a maestro of the Sitar (the seven-stringed wooden musical instrument of India).

Uday Shankar’s childhood was spent mostly in the North Indian states of Uttar

Pradesh and Rajasthan. Due to his father’s job placement in different parts of India, he

was constantly changing schools. His education was patchy and erratic, and the constant

shifting generated little interest in studies. From an early age, he showed a flair for

drawing and an interest in the dances of the nearby villagers. Mata Din was one such

villager, whose dancing touched and influenced young Uday so much that he would

imitate his movements. His mother would encourage him to dance to the accompaniment

of the gramaphone. Rajasthani folk dances and dances of the tribal people nearby his

home appealed to him, and these were also his initial inspiration.

At the age of fourteen, he participated in school programs where he would dress

up as a girl and dance. His father was eager to develop his talent in painting and arranged

for extra classes through his schoolmaster Ambika Charan. Ambika Charan helped Uday

1 Khokar, Mohan. His Dance. His Life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar. New Delhi: Himalayan Books. 1983.

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not only in drawing and painting but taught him the basics of photography and magic

tricks. He introduced him to different musical instruments and told him stories from the

Indian epics and mythology. In this way, the restless young boy’s thinking was molded

in a rewarding way. At age seventeen, he was admitted to the Sir J.J. School of Arts in

Bombay, the oldest art school in India, for a three-year diploma course. He finished his

training by the middle of 1920. On August 23, 1920, when he was twenty years old, he

left India for England, where he joined his father who was working there. Uday was to

further his knowledge of drawing and painting at the Royal College of Arts in London.

In London, Shankar’s admission to the Royal School of Arts was secured for the

five-year course, but he completed it in three years and received the diploma of London

University. He fulfilled the requirements of the standard established curricula. He

enjoyed drawing figures and portraits, but mostly was interested in oil painting and the

theme of dance. He studied and painted in western styles. He received two prizes, one

for a self-portrait and the other for “Dance in Moonlight,” a canvas painting which

portrayed the mystic dance of Lord Krishna and his consort Radha, with the Gopis or

milkmaids.2

Sir William Rothenstein, the principal of the Royal College of Arts, was an ardent

admirer of Indian art and artists. He cultivated personal friendships with Indian notables

such as A.K. Coomaraswamy, Nandalal Bose, and the Bengali artists Abindranath Tagore

and his eminent brother Rabindranath Tagore, whose Nobel prize-winning drama poem,

Gitaniali was first introduced to the West from Rothenstein’s London home in 1911.3 Sir

2 Kookar. Mohan, His Dance, his life: A portrait of Udav Shankar. New Delhi: Himalayan books. 1983. 3 Abrahams, Ruth Karen, The Life and Art of Udav Shankar. New York University, 1986.

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Rothenstein was impressed by Shankar’s progress in his studies and believed that

Shankar had great potential in becoming an emerging artist of India. However, when he

saw Shankar’s drawings, he opposed Shankar’s attempts to incorporate western stylistics

into his work. He suggested alternative avenues available to Shankar for developing a

more personal style that would maintain the integrity of his cultural heritage4

Rothenstein asked Shankar to take a month off from college and study the soul of India

through Indian art and sculpture at the British Museum. He further suggested that

Shankar would only understand his gift and achieve success if he returned to India to

view, first hand, the great works of art that existed there.

During his stay in London, his father produced variety shows for the

entertainment of the elite class and as a pleasant diversion for aristocratic gatherings.

The earliest of these was at the Play House, Charing Cross, in 1915. Uday’s father

recruited him as part of the presentations and introduced him to many important people in

society. One of Shyam Shankar’s productions at that time was called “The Great

Moghul’s Chamber of Dreams,” which was presented at the Royal Opera House, Covent

Garden in May 1923. Uday did not dance there, but participated by creating the

ambience of a dreamland with fairies flying around. He painted pictures on slides, and

created a magical effect with light. During this period, the only occasion when Uday

gave a dance performance that he could recall was at a garden party on June 30, 1922,

when George V congratulated him. At the same time, Uday was making progress in his

studies at the Royal College of Arts, and Sir Rothenstein was so pleased with Uday’s

''Ibid. from last page

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work that he managed to get him a British Scholarship for Prix de Rome, the highest

attainment possible in painting.5

In the winter of 1923, the celebrated Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova returned to

her English home, Ivy House in Hampstead, London, from her tour of the orient. She had

visited Tndia and wanted to see Indian dancing, but had a difficult time observing trained

dancers. At that time in India, dancing was looked down upon by most notable people as

a frivolous and vulgar pursuit, and they did not want to have anything to do with it. Most

of the dancers remained in the Moghul courts or on private landowner estates. According

to her husband, Victor Dandre, Pavlova managed to meet only some dancers.

In Bombay, Pavlova was invited by some rich Parsees to see a celebrated Hindoo dancer. This dancer had a high reputation and was often invited to weddings and other festivities. She was not very young, but was a fine, rather stout woman, more a singer than a dancer. She accompanied her singing by rhythmic movement of her arms, occasionally of her head, very rarely her body.” Dandre remarked on a dancer they saw in Calcutta: “We saw another famous dancer in Calcutta. She was younger, and although she also sang while dancing, she showed greater variety of movements and that is all the dancing we saw in India.6

Pavlova did visit the temples and caves, and saw some of the festivals and

ceremonies. Pavlova danced at a local wedding while in Bombay and on a visit to the

reconstructed cave paintings at Ajanta.7 These cultural experiences aroused a desire in

Pavlova to choreograph dances or ballets on Indian themes. Two dance suites emerged

from Pavlova’s travels to India. “Ajanta Frescoes” was the first choreography which

was inspired by seeing original masterpieces in the caves of Ajanta, near the city of

Bombay (Mumbai) in Maharashtra. The story is about the attainment of enlightenment by

5 Khokar, Mohan, His Dance. His life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar. New Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1983. 6 V. Dandre, Anna Pavlova in Art and Life. 1932, New York: Amo press, 1979,287. 7 Abrahams, Ruth Karen, The Life and Art of Udav Shankar. New York University. 1986.

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Prince Gautama, who afterwards became The Buddha.8 The sets and costume for

Pavlova’s work were created by her associate, Ivan Clustine, and the score was composed

by Nicolas Tcherepnin.

The second suite was entitled “Oriental Impressions” and had two sections. One

was based on the traditional dances she studied while in Japan, and the other was based

on the Indian weddings she attended. Pavlova found the Indian musician she sought to

compose the score. Her name was Comolata Banerji, a young Bengali woman who was a

pianist, and was engaged in promoting Indian music in London through teaching and

performance. An Indian friend, poet N. C. Sen, a prominent member of the Anglo-Indian

community of London, assisted in locating the male dancer she needed to partner her in

her Indian dance compositions. Since Sen was a benefactor of Uday’s father and was

familiar with Uday’s talents as a visual artist and a performer, he invited H. Algeranoff, a

leading member in Pavlova’s company who accompanied her to India, to attend one of

Shankar’s salon performances. He was impressed by the performance and arranged for a

private meeting between Shankar and Pavlova.9

Even though Shankar did not have formal training in any of the classical styles of

Indian dance such as, Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Manipuri, or Kathak, Odissi Pavlova

was impressed with Uday Shankar’s style and his good looks. She asked him to show

some dance movements. After he did that, she proposed that he should undertake

composing pieces to two ballets for her and he accepted. In an interview conducted by

Sir R. P. H. Davies nearly fifty-five years after the historic meeting, Shankar recalled: “I

8 Khokar, Mohan, His Dance. His Life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar New Delhi: Himalayan Books. 1983. 9 Money, Keith, Anna Pavlova. 221.

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was taken to her home by a common friend. She, Pavlova, served us tea. The way she

poured tea, the way she moved her hands, all this was so attractive that I could not take

my eyes off her. Every movement of her’s was as if she were dancing. Never were

gestures so beautiful, so full of life and energy.”10 Shankar was not a classical Indian

dancer or a trained dancer when he joined Pavlova's company in 1923. He was similarly

unfamiliar with ballet and western concert dance and their production.

When William Rothenstein heard that Uday was switching to devote his artistic

energies to dancing, he adamantly opposed the idea because he considered Uday to be

one of his prize students and he did not want to lose him. An intense debate developed

between Rothenstein and Pavlova. Pavlova was convinced that Uday Shankar was bom

to be a dancer: '‘God never gives such bodies to painters and sculptors. They don’t need

them.” She argued passionately, but Rothenstein was in no mood to give in.11 Shankar

had maintained a strong sense of loyalty to Rothenstein, and his decision to leave

painting and become a professional dancer was a difficult and complicated one. In the

spring of 1923, a meeting was held between Uday Shankar, Anna Pavlova, Sir

Rothenstein, Uday’s father and Maharaja Bhawani Singh, so that Uday could make up his

mind and convey a final decision as to what he wanted. At that time, his desire to dance

proved stronger, and he confidently told everyone there that he wanted to dance with

Pavlova in her company. Despite Shankar’s defection from painting to dance in 1923,

William Rothenstein acknowledged later that the right decision had been made. “I went

to one of them [performances], I saw at once I had been wrong; Uday Shankar’s dancing,

10 Abrahams, Ruth Karen.The Life and Art nf UriavShankar New York University, 1986. 11 Khokar, Mohan, His Dance. His Life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar. New Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1983, 28.

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his poise, and gestures, had the grace and gravity I saw in the players and dancers in

India...there was a religious atmosphere throughout Uday’s entertainment.” Rothenstein

remained a supporter of Shankar as a dance artist throughout his lifetime. When Shankar

started his arts center in India in 1938, Rothenstein was among the first to lend his name

and financial support to the cause.12

Uday Shankar was an unofficial member of Pavlova’s company until he

completed his academic requirements and got his diploma in June 1923. His final project

was a self-portrait, which won him first place in the George Clausen Prize for Portraiture.

The second painting was a pastoral scene of the Radha Krishna theme, which won him

first place in the Spencer Award for Composition. These paintings were accepted into

the Royal College Sketch Club exhibition, and this made Shankar the first Indian national

to receive such recognition in the history of the Club.

His first task in his new career and collaboration with Pavlova was to prepare for

and compose two ballets: “A Hindu Wedding” and “Krishna and Radha. ” Uday later

confessed,

I did not know what ballet meant. For a few days I saw the group practicing and rehearsing and I was easily able to understand Pavlova’s requirement - I mean, how to cover space, make group formations, create and blend movements. Do not forget, I was a painter. Pavlova gave me, as they used to call them, ten big girls and ten small girls. I selected eight. The music was already there by Comolata. It was really no problem creating the pieces.13

“A Hindu Wedding” was composed from recollections of a colorful Rajasthani

wedding ceremony, which Shankar had seen in India. The duration of that piece was

12 ibid., 177-178. 13 Khokar, Mohan. His Dance. His life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar. New Delhi: Himalavan Books, 1983. 28.

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fourteen minutes. The composition “Krishna and Radha” had decorative sequences with

the performers standing, sitting, swaying, and turning with delicate hand and arm

movements while Shankar, portrayed as the blue God Krishna, held a flute in his hands

and struck different poses. There was no story or suggestive narrative involved in this

piece. The music was played by the orchestra on western instruments led by Comolata

Baneijee, who provided the melody and rhythm. Costumes and decor for the two ballets

were based on seventeenth-century Indian miniatures in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The fabric for the costumes were brought from India by Pavlova during her trip.

After three months the productions were ready to be presented at the Royal Opera

House, Covent Garden, the oldest theater in London. The season opened on September

10. 1923; six new ballets were to be performed by Pavlova and Company, and “Oriental

Impressions” was one among them. H. Algemoff, an Englishman and the principal male

dancer in Pavlova’s Company, was the eventual successor to Shankar’s roles in “Oriental

Impressions.” He recalls that the suite took several months to prepare, but the works

received public and critical acclaim at their premiere.14 The press responded to “Oriental

Impressions” as follows.

The London Daily Mail wrote “Madame Pavlova’s...brilliant Indian dancing,...

and Oriental impressions are the best things she has done this season. In the Indian

Dance where she was Radha to Uday Shankar’s Krishna, she reached a height of tragic

intensity which only a great artist would have attained. The whole of this miniature

grouping of the ballet, the color scheme of the dresses and the lighting was beyond

14 H. Algeranoff, My Years With Pavlova. London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1957.97.

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praise. The extraordinary and impressive Krishna, Mr. Uday Shankar, who also arranged

the dances, stands out in the ballet where nothing was commonplace.”13

The Times newspaper in London commented,

It was difficult to get back to the frame of mind necessary to enjoy more oriental realism in the two Hindu scenes which followed. These were given to music by Miss Comoiata Baneijee, music in which long and wandering dance tunes with percussive accents and drones cleverly devised in Western orchestration produce effects which belong to the East. Again we are not prepared to say how far either the stage design or music are actual reproductions, and how far imaginative, but the second of the two, Krishna and Radha, certainly produced its own imaginative atmosphere.16

The Morning Post reported as follows:

The Second Oriental Impression was a Hindu Wedding, which was solemnized literally. There was little movement but a wonderful display of color. The nautch girls wore dresses of ravishing beauty. Their style of movement, too, was pleasing, and when the lights were up one noticed with satisfaction that English names were prominent in the list of dancers. The next impression, entitled Krishna and Radha, no had positive features except that it brought in Madame Pavlova in a filmy dance. She moved and was lissome, and the dramatic significance vanished unnoticed.

The Daily Telegraph wrote,

The Oriental Impression the - second novelty - is a series of unconnected “acts.” ...the second represents picturesque scenes which are enacted at a Hindu wedding; and the third, Krishna and Radha shows Mme. Pavlova dancing Indian dances in a gorgeous costume, herself as light and sinuous and pliant as her veils. These things are attractive in many ways; the scenery (a stage on the stage, with its own curtain of Indian design) and the panoply of East have unmistakable romantic flavor. But, perhaps, it was not wholly wise to go to the East for music. In that field, East is East and West is West. No doubt the tunes we heard were genuine enough and beautiful. But they’re artistic products which cannot be exported without losing their characteristic flavour. But, perhaps, this is a matter of taste, and others may prefer Eastern music undiluted.17

15 Review, London Daily Mail. September II, 1923, 10. 16 Khokar, Mohan. His Dance. His Life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar New Delhi: Himalayan Books. 1983. 30. 17 Khokar, Mohan, His Dance. His Life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar New Delhi: Himalayan Books. 1983.

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Uday Shankar performed his choreographed dances and toured England with

Pavlova on a special train, which had inscribed “Pavlova Express” in gold on it.

Algeranoff helped Shankar familiarize himself with their way of life while traveling.

Shankar and Pavlova’s professional relationship lasted about a year and a half. After the

European tours, the company proceeded to America on a tour sponsored by impresario

Sol Hurok. The first performance during the American tour took place on October 9,

1923, at the Manhattan Opera House in New York City. This tour covered Canada,

British Columbia and Mexico and lasted nine months. During this trip, Shankar did not

have much to do except for appearing in his two choreographed pieces. Pavlova did not

permit him to learn any of the “western” pieces, nor was he allowed to participate in

general company classes, for she believed that the ballet technique would ruin his ‘line’

for ‘oriental’ dancing. Shankar’s only other delegated responsibility was to train and

rehearse the company in his own works. Shankar asked Pavlova to teach him the dances

of the extras so that he could assist in performing some pieces, thereby extending his

responsibilities. His request was rejected, and Pavlova suggested that he should return to

India and learn authentic dance and movements, which his country had to offer. After the

company’s American tour was completed in the summer of 1924, Uday Shankar resigned

from Pavlova’s company and returned to Europe to explore the possibilities of his own

creative ability in dancing. 18

When Uday Shankar returned to London, his father and the Maharaja Bhawani

Singh were about to return to India. Uday declined to go back with his father, saying that

he would prefer to stay on and would manage to look after himself. His father

18 Abrahams, Ruth, Karen, The Life and Art of Udav Shankar. New York University, 1986.

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acknowledged that was the right spirit, and advised that, unless he was desperately in

need of money, not to ask him for it; this philosophy would give him a good start in life.

Uday was in Europe for five years after he left Pavlova’s company in 1924. During that

time he suffered long spells of excruciating penury, and experienced desperate and

difficult moments trying to survive in Europe. But he did not mm to his father for

financial support.

Lady Meherbai Dorabji Tata was a prominent social figure in London; she came

from the famous Tata family of industrialists in India. She was known to have the

reputation of possessing the largest privately owned diamond in the world. She had

introduced Indian culture to the International Council of Women. She knew Uday and

admired and encouraged his dancing. The British Empire Exhibition was presented in a

grand scale at Wembley near London in 1924. It displayed India as “The Brightest Jewel

in the Imperial Crown.” This was a prestigious exhibition, and Lady Tata arranged to

have Shankar perform there. This was Uday’s first public appearance in London as a

professional dancer since he parted with Pavlova in July 1924. He commented:

I danced the dance of Shiva. Music I myself gave to be composed and some good musicians were there who played the orchestra. As they played, I danced. Without knowing anything about Shiva’s dance. I just jumped around, most probably. What I did, God knows, but it proved a big success and they bravoed me. I could not realized why they liked it so much.19

From London Shankar went to Paris in August 1924. In Paris, Shankar received

very little support from agents or from the community and was forced to dance in small,

noisy cabarets to make ends meet. In an interview with writer

19 Khokar, Mohan, His Dance. His Life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar. New Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1983, 41

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Mohan Khokar, Shankar told him:

There is no count of the number of times I must have pawned anything of what I had for sheer survival. I remember I had to dance even when I had high fever and when my body was soaked with rain. I asked for leave and was told I could leave - for good. But now I think this was really a great thing in my life for I came to know show business in the raw. Gradually I built up a programme for better theaters and concert halls.

In the cabarets of Paris, Shankar offered dances like the “Sword Dance,”

“Nautch,” “Hindu Dance,” and “Water Carrier.” During his tour of America, the

renowned Anglo-Ceylonese scholar and Indologist Ananda K. Coomaraswamy presented

Uday with a copy of the 1917 volume, The Mirror of Gestures.20 This treatise is on the

technique and aesthetics of dance and drama found throughout India. In his book, Mohan

Khokar states that one night in Paris, Uday decided to look at the book. He came across a

figure of the Hindu deity Shiva in the “Nataraja” (dancing Shiva) pose. The depiction of

the Shiva in his role as “Lord of the Dance” mesmerized Uday, and he felt an urge to try

out the pose:

Then I discovered that this was not merely a pose but the center of hundreds of movements that moved from one to another and finished with that pose. I invented movements which I thought emanated from the Nataraja pose. Of course, at that time I did not know who Nataraja was or what he represented. Later, this idea of movements radiating from a source and merging back into it, I used in a number of my compositions.

In Paris, Shankar worked to establish himself as a credible dancer. Algemoff

20 Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy and G.H. Duggirala translated in English from the Abhinaya Darpana (Mirror of Gestures), an early 13th century treatise on dance which discusses gestures and movements and describes Indian dance. 21 Khokar, Mohan His Dance. His Life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar. Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1983,42.

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states that Shankar had established a studio in which he conducted dance classes, and

notes that during the Pavlova company performance in the Theatre des Champs Elysee

(1928), he attended those classes: “I saw Uday Shankar several times as he was now

teaching in Paris and I took the opportunity to have several more lessons with him.”22 In

Paris, Shankar's dance partners were two Italian sisters, Rachael and Adelaide Lan

Franchi, who left Pavlova’s group with Shankar for Europe to establish an independent

company. Jeanne Ronsay was a French woman who had been a pupil of Isadora Duncan.

Jeanne started learning Indian dance movements from Shankar, and it was through her

that he came to know Simone Barbier.

Shankar’s first professional engagement came fifteen months after his arrival in

France. This was at the “Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industrielles

Modeme” on November 7, 1925. From this program Shankar went on to perform

another major solo concert at Theatre des Champs Elysee on January 11, 1926. There

were twenty-two items, including solo and group dances and orchestral interludes of an

oriental nature in the concert. Some of the major choreographic works included: “Danse

du Diable,” “Danse Vaisya,” and “Nautch,” “Danse de Shiva,” “Gandharva et Apsara,”

“Indra,” “Krishna et Radha,” and “La Mort du Bhill.” In “Danse Nuptiale” Shankar

dressed up as an Indian woman in a Sari (an Indian woman’s traditional garment) and

ornaments, performed the dance. Reaction to his work by La Tribune de Geneva

conveyed praise for his artistry.

Uday Shankar dances in a feminine costume, a Wedding Dance that is unique, in which the tapestry has nothing of the suggestive or unpleasantness that it usually has. In these dances, sensuality is spiritualized, idealized to the point of losing all

22 H. Algeranoff. My Years with Anna Pavlova, 131.

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its qualities of embarrassment. Beauty, Harmony, and the Derfection of movement, and poise leave us completely absorbed and subjugated.

During the composition of these earlier dances, Shankar relied on European

theatrical training and the production experience acquired during his tenure with Pavlova

and her staff. He also relied on European orchestration and piano accompaniments rather

than on traditional Indian instrumentation. On February 26, 1926, Shankar and his dance

partners, the Italian Lan Franchis sisters, offered an extensive program at the Olympia

theatre in Paris duplicating the earlier one as performed in Theatre des Champs Elysee.

After that, they traveled on a year-long concert tour throughout France, Belgium,

Germany and Switzerland.24 Their professional relationship dissolved around January

28, 1927, after their last known concert date.

Sometime after that date, Shankar met the Swiss painter and sculptress Alice

Boner. She was an affluent member of European society who had been interested in

India since her youth, and longed to visit India. She first witnessed Shankar’s dance in

1926 in Zurich, while he was touring with the Lan Franchis sisters. She was so affected

by his dancing that she invited him to pose for her while she made drawings and clay

models of his dance. She again met Shankar in 1929 in Paris, where he was performing

with his new partner Simki. Simki joined Shankar’s classes in 1928, learned Shankar’s

dance style proficiently and remained as his dance partner for twenty years, together they

performed extensively throughout Europe, and, by the end of 1929, Simki was

independently recognized for her sensitive interpretations of Shankar’s choreography.

Simone was a sixteen-year-old girl who played the piano. Shankar, impressed

23 Khokar, Mohan, His Dance. His Life: A Pro trait of Udav Shankar. Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1983. 24 Abrahams, Ruth Karen, Life and Art of Udav Shankar. New York University, 1986.

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with her talent, asked her to accompany him in providing music for his dances. Simone

would watch Shankar dance and teasingly imitate his movements. Shankar thought she

was very good and recruited her to partner him in his dances. Simone Barbier, who was

now given the name Simki by Uday Shankar, left playing the piano to accompany Uday

Shankar as his dance mate. Simki remained as the principal dancer with Uday Shankar

for twenty years, creating dance history with him.

During this time, Shankar wanted to travel to India and bring a group of trained

dancers and musicians with instruments from India to perform for western audiences.

Alice Boner took an interest in Shankar’s choreography and concerts. She became

Shankar’s business manager and artistic advisor. Boner supported Shankar’s dream to

return to India, and encouraged him to go on an extensive tour of India that would enable

him to observe and experience firsthand the dances, costumes, rituals and local traditions

of the people. She encouraged him to detach himself from the use of western

orchestrations, and from his reliance on western audience expectations. In 1930 Alice

Boner arranged for the trip, and then accompanied Shankar to India on January 4, 1930.

Uday Shankar and Alice Boner traveled throughout India visiting ancient temples,

caves, and monuments and observing classical and folk-dance traditions. He went to the

northeast part o f India to the state of Manipur, and as far south as the Malabar Coast. At a

temple festival in Guravayur in the state of Kerala, Uday saw his first dance-drama

Kathakali performance. It was there that he met the great South Indian poet Vallathol

Narayan Menon at the Kerala Kala Mandalam, Vallathol’s school for the preservation of

Kathakali and other dance arts from the south. Shankar was deeply affected by the

ancient art form of Kathakali and its leading exponent, Shankaran Namboodiri. He

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remained in Kerala for six weeks and studied the dance form with him and came to

regard Namboodiri as his own Guru.

Alice Boner and Uday Shankar viewed ancient temple scriptures, from which they

sketched costume designs and poses for translation into future choreographies. They also

sketched costumes modeled after various regional apparei and from tempie sculptures. It

was at this time that Shankar amassed his extensive collection of over fifty-six

instruments, mostly from India but also were from Indonesia and Ceylon.

In the city of Calcutta, he gave a few solo performances, hoping to secure funding

for his plans to take an Indian troop back to Europe. But his performance hardly

generated any excitement. Timir Baran Bhattacharya was a young classically trained

musician who was learning to play the stringed instrument called the Sarod from a great

master, Ustad Allauddin Khan. Mr. Bhattacharya went to see Shankar’s performance and

afterwards invited him to listen to his family orchestra. Shankar was impressed with Mr.

Bhattacharya’s talent and asked him to compose music for four dances. He also hired

Timir Baran Bhattacharya as his music director and asked him to prepare for a trip to

Europe. Next, Uday organized his brothers, Rajendra, Debendra and Ravi, their cousin

Kanaklata and other family members to be a part of the dance group. His mother,

Hamangini Devi, joined to look after the household. In India, Shankar did not get the

financial support he needed. Alice Boner provided the financial means for the artists to

travel to Europe. The trip to India lasted almost a year, from December 1929 to

November 1930.

Soon after his return to Paris with his all-Indian dancers and musicians, Uday

Shankar began molding his artists and working on forming a concrete group. Simki

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joined soon after the team arrived. Another young musician whom Shankar had met

earlier in London, named Vishnudas Shirali, also joined the team as a musician. The

group was registered under the name La Compagnie d ’Uday Shan-kar Hindoue Dames et

la Musique. Alice Boner and Uday Shankar were co-directors; the principal dancers were

Uday and Simki, and Timir Baran Bhattacharya was the music director. The opening

performance by the Uday Shankar Company was given on March 3, 1931, at Theatre des

Champs-Elysees in Paris. The program consisted of fifteen items: nine were dances and

six were music pieces. Shankar had three solos: “Indra”, “Wedding Dance” and

“Gandharva.” Simki performed “Temple Dance” and “Spring Dance.” There were three

duets by Shankar and Simki: “Peasant Dance,” “Radha and Krishna” and “Sword

Dance.” At the end, Shankar and Simki performed the “Tandava Nrittya.”25 The program

was a resounding success. After four performances in France, the company went on tour

to Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Australia,

Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, England, Burma,

Singapore, Palestine, Egypt, Bulgaria, Poland, Yugoslavia and the United States. They

traveled and performed for about two years. There were 889 performances during that

period.

Shankar’s group visited India between July 3 and September 15, 1933, for their

first Indian performances. There were forty-two shows, after which the company left for

their second tour of Europe and America. The Indian trip was managed by Haren Ghosh,

who became India’s leading impresario through his association with the Shankar

Company. The Mayor of Calcutta held a public reception for Shankar on June 18, 1933,

25 Khokar. Mohan, His Dance. His Life: A portrait of Udav Shankar. New Delhi: Himalayan books.

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at the town hall where he delivered a touching addressed of welcome. The performance

at Madan’s Theatre, Calcutta, on July 6, 1933, was attended by the renowned and world

famous Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. The poet invited Uday to perform at his

institution for arts and literature called Shantinekatan. In southern India the Shankar

troop did not prove to be such a hit. The South, with its orthodox and conservative

culture, was possessive about its own rich traditions of classical dance such as Bharata

Natyam and Kathakali. The people found it hard to accept something so different and

unconventional.

In Europe, the press seemed to have appreciated his performances wherever he

went. Some of the press coverage during the first two years of the tour praised the

company’s performances and expressed their admiration for Shankar’s talent. In Paris.

the review in the Le Miroir du Monde. Paris was glowing:

The discovery of the dance and music of Uday Shan-Kar will remain for us one of the most magnificent recollections we can record. But shows like this do not live on the strength of their aesthetic beauty alone, though that is one of their purest expressions. So many different elements enter into its compositions which makes it obvious that the echoes, lights and thoughts of an entire world, an entire soul, an entire metaphysical system are projected into a performance which could appear to the less observing a simple, though powerfully picturesque display of folk-lore.

In Geneva, the press wrote in IL Lavoro.

For Uday Shan-Kar himself there are no words, he has such a physical beauty, such a transcendental expression, such grandness in his attitudes, such a command of his muscles, that his presence alone has a unique significance. And when we come to think that in addition he is the soul and organizer of this Hindu tourney in the Occident, we realize that we are in the presence of a rare, yet mysterious personality of modem India.

The Reichpost in Germany wrote,

1983.56.

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An infinitely beautiful and deep charm emanates from these dances, which are originated by a thousand-year-old tradition and are like ritual ceremonies. This dance never loses measure and harmony, the gestures, the steps are always composed and full of dignity. Shan-Kar, who has composed all the dances, ravishes the eye by the indescribable nobility of his dance and the transfigured, remote expression of his beautiful face, the dancer Simki by an inimitable gracefulness and charm.

The M om m y Post in London wrote.

Sometimes, but very rarely, one emerges from a theatrical performance feeling that the everyday world is trivial and unreal compared with what one has just seen. Such a performance is to be found in the altogether remarkable Hindu ballet now being presented at the Arts Theatre, by Uday Shan-Kar and his company.26

The new company with its many unique performers, the inclusion of dance and

drama, gorgeous costumes, live music performed on various Indian and exotic

instruments by musicians who sat on stage with various costumes created a high audience

expectation and an identifiable atmosphere. The performances created great enthusiasm

with European audiences and Shankar and Simki’s reputation was established as one of

excellence.

When Uday Shankar was performing at the Exposition Coloniale in Paris in

October, 1931, the American impresario Sol Hurok was one of the audience members

watching the performance. Hurok had seen Shankar earlier in the United States, when he

was with Pavlova in 1924. Impressed with what he saw of Shankar and his group, he

booked them for shows in America. According to writer Mohan Khokar, Sol Hurok

recorded his impressions of Shankar in his book, Impresario. Hurok writes.

Behind this thin studious face with the melting eyes, Shankar was astonishingly canny. Together with his Hindu scholarship, with his ability to reproduce the ancient legends, their involved forms and hypnotic other world atmosphere.

26 Ibid. 56-57.

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together with his own great talent as dancer, musician and choreographer, he miraculously possessed an understanding of the western theater public and the specific limitations in time and space of a Western audience’s attention. Perhaps the showmanship on which we in America pride ourselves is more universal than we think. At any rate, Shan-Kar had it. He had absorbed a great deal in his apprenticeship to Pavlova, brief as it was. When I began to describe to him the kind of concert program I needed, its precise timing as to its beginning, middle, and end, the need for intermissions, all the technical details of program making for an American tour, he nodded understandingiy and toid me in his gentle, hesitant voice that he knew what I meant and was prepared to give me what I asked.27

Meanwhile, in preparation for his American tour, Uday continued to perform and

tour Europe. He gave a private performance for a select group of theatre agents and dance

critics in Paris. Among the invitees was John Martin of The New York Times, who sent a

message to his office from Paris, which appeared on April 9, 1932. He wrote, “The visit

of Shan-Kar to America will undoubtedly be the most notable novelty, as well as one of

the most provocative and delightful events of the dance season.” On December 26,

1932, Uday Shankar and his company o f dancers and musicians premiered before an

American public and press at the New Yorker Theatre, in New York City. The concert

was included as a part of the International Dance Festival.

Shanker’s six-month tour of the United Sates in 1933 generated excitement and a

positive impression of the quality of the overall production with regard to the dance,

drama, music, and costumes. The focus was on Shankar himself, and he was hailed with

enthusiasm for his unique offering and special talent by the critics. The company

performed in a minimum of forty-one concerts in a sixty-day schedule. According to

author Ruth K. Abrahams,

27 Ibid, 67.

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Shankar’s success with American audiences was predictable for the circumstances of American life at the time. The start of the great depression, identified with the stock market crash of 1929, had taken its economic and emotional toll on the American people. Entertainments provided outlets for pent-up frustrations, anxieties, and the sheer exhaustion of daily survival in a society that had all but slowed down to a standstill....Shankar and his company provided an escape into a new exotic world infused with the Hindu spirit where serenity triumphed over chaos and where harmony reigned over dissonance. The effect was powerful and lasting.

Margaret Barr was an early pioneer of modem dance in England and dance

director of Dartington Hall Center for the Arts. Dartington Hall was established by

Dorothy Whitney Straight Elmhirst29 in 1926 as an experimental environment in which

young women and men could develop their talents in the arts. Dartington Hall

encouraged an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to education through the arts. In

1934 Margaret Barr attended a Shankar concert, and was so impressed that she

recommended him to Dorothy Elmhirst. This resulted in a 1933 London concert

sponsored by Dorothy and her husband Leonard Elmhirst. Shankar’s first visit to

Dartington Hall proved financially beneficial, as well as enlightening. The Elmhirsts

knew and admired Alice Boner. Upon her recommendation, the Elmhirsts agreed to

finance Shankar and his company on a return trip to India after his London concerts, so

that he could once again research and develop new choreographic compositions.

By this time, there were needed changes within the company. Shankar’s brothers

wanted to continue with their own private lives, and cousin Kanaklata was called back to

India to be married. Music director Timir Baran Bhattacharya joined the New Theatres

3 Abrahams, Ruth Karen, Life and Art of Udav Shankar. New York University. 1986, 133. 29 Dorothy Whitney Straight Elmhirst founder of Dartington Hall in 1926. She was an American who later married an Englishman, Leonard Elmhirst. Financially wealthy and socially connected she admired the arts and promoted creativity through the arts.

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company in Calcutta and was replaced by Vishnudas Shirali. At the end of 1934,

Shankar once again returned to India, to replace his previous members and find new

dancers. While in Calcutta, Shankar recruited Zohra Mumtaz, the daughter of an

aristocratic Muslim family who studied modern dance at the Mary Wigman School in

Dresden, Germany, and her sister Uzra. Another addition to the team was Madhavan, a

young Kathakali dancer trained at Kalamandalam in Kerala. Three solos were prepared

for Madhavan which were based on the Kathakali style: “Hunter’s Tragedy,” “Mayoor

Nritya” and “Partha Kritartha.” He was also included in other group dances. Shankar

persuaded Sankaran Namboodiri of Kerala to join him as his Guru in Calcutta.

Namboodiri helped compose the piece called “Kartikeya,” which became one of

Shankar’s most popular solos. He returned to Kerala and later joined Uday in his dance

institution in Almora.

Shankar also became friends with the famous Sarod maestro, Ustad Allauddin

Khan and took him on his next tour, which began in January, 1936, and continued until

March, 1938. This tour was supported by Dartington Hall and in return Uday performed,

lectured and taught classes for the Dartington students. During this time Shankar

developed a close relationship with Beatrice Straight, daughter of Dorothy Elmhrist, who

encouraged his artistic growth, and served as a catalyst for the development of Uday’s

idea of an arts center for India. Beatrice contributed a large sum of her own money to the

project. In 1937, most of his efforts were focused on fund raising, organizational

structure for the arts center and the curriculum. Uday Shankar concluded his Amrican

tour with a series of farewell performances, the last of which was at Camagie Hall, New

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York, on March 12, 1938. He announced that he would be going back to India to

establish an All India Center for Dance and Music.

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SHANKAR’S CHOREOGRAPHY

The techniques of Indian classical dancing are classified as “ Natya, " “Nritya, ”

and “Nritta, ” according to the ancient treatise on dance Abhinava Darpana The term

“Natya” corresponds to drama or acting within a dance composition. “Nritya" is the

miming aspect of the drama {Natya), commonly known as Abhinaya. It is shown through

gestures when it is performed to the words sung in a melody. The word ‘ N ritta ” refers to

pure dancing, when the movements of the body do not express any mood or do not

convey any meaning. The Indian classical dancer is required to understand and know all

three of these basic elements during training and performance.

During the Indian dance revival in the late 1930s, artists such as Madame Meneka

(through her ballets in the Kathak style), Guru Gopinath (through the Kathakali style),

and Ragini Devi (through the Kathakali and Bharatanatyam styles), as well as the earlier

contributions of Rukmini Arundel {Bharatanatyam style) were trying to recreate the past

through traditional methods of dance. They presented their work in a “ballet” which

they thought would be acceptable and pleasing to the audience. Their work was centered

on their discoveries of traditional art. These artists did not attempt to get away from the

two basic principles of Indian dance. The first is the relationship of the music and the

rhythm ( Tala) to movement in the pure dance numbers {Nritta). Second is the

relationship of the meaning of words to the movement in the mimetic numbers {Nritya or

Abhinaya). What was important to them in their presentations was adherence to the

34

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classical pattern of relating movement to the rhythmic metrical cycle (Tala) and to

the literary word (S ahitya) sung in a song. Performers in traditional classical dance were

known to spend hours, sometimes even all night, illuminating and presenting a few lines

or a paragraph of text by exploring emotional associations and telling background stories.

Some of this elaboration is verba! and some is physical, through gestures and mime.

This structure of elaboration and association is typical in Indian classical dance. Dancers

who tell stories from the two great epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, emphasize in

performance how the stories are told, what new interpretations the performer can bring to

telling the story, and how they make them relevant.

In contrast, Uday Shankar tried to break away from this classical pattern. The

distinction between Nritya (pure dance) and Nritya or Abhinaya (acting) was broken. His

movement was dependent on the structure and configuration of the human body itself in

relation to the use of the surrounding space. His movements did not depend on the

language of hand gestures, the set rhythmic cyclic patterns (Tala) or the poetic words.

The instruments were orchestrated in a western way with linear counts rather than the

cyclic Tala system. For Shankar, dance was created first and then music was composed

according to the flavor of the movements. This reversed the classical pattern where the

musical composition was created first or was the basis for dance and the dance was

adapted to the musical composition. Shortening the length of choreographed work was

another highlight of Uday Shankar’s presentations. Most of his compositions timed

about three to six minutes.

In Shankar’s style, movement evolved first and was not guided by any stylized

pattern. Articulation of the body was emphasized. In addition, there was hardly any

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vocal accompaniment in his compositions. The vocal part was replaced by instrumental

music which either heightened the effect of the dance or was subordinate to the

movement of the dance. The dancer did not have the opportunity to interpret or

improvise according to the poetic line or the recurrent musical melody.1 Repetition of a

musical phrase, a word, a line or emotions in a song in classical Indian music is not

uncommon and is an accepted norm. Similarity, in classical dance, repetition of

movements to synchronize and keep in time with the music and its emotions is acceptable

and is considered a challenge in performance. In these dances, “saying” or dancing the

same thing in a repetitious manner makes the dance happen. In his choreography,

Shankar sacrificed the restatement of phrases and emotions which are desired in

performances by Indian audiences. He therefore created shortened pieces to make them

look concise, clear, and full of physical activity.

Short, thematic dances were also easier for the western audience to understand

than long narrative ones. It is clear from his pieces that he mostly preferred to use groups

of dancers in his choreographed works, unlike the classical solo styles. This required the

process of structuring a dance piece and synchronization of more than one dancer with

the orchestra. The titles made the themes obvious, and the beauty and movements of the

dances conveyed the rest of the meaning. One does not need to have an understanding of

Hindu mythology or religion to enjoy his earlier compositions, such as “Peasant Dance”

(sowing and harvesting of rice), “Temple Dance” (worshipping a temple deity), “Radha

Krishna” (the love of Krishna and Radha), “Spring Dance” (a young girl dancing in the

garden and chasing away birds that have come to pick up flower seeds), “Wedding

1 Vatsyayan, Kapila, Indian Classical Dance. New Delhi: Ministry of Education and Broadcasting,

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Dance” (a young Rajput bride expresses her sentiments and anxiety on the eve of her

wedding), “Sword Dance” (the ceremony of consecrating swords by women to give to

their men before going off to war), “Spear Dance” (a dance showing dexterity in the use

of the weapon), “Harvest,” “Snake Charmer,” and other such titles.

For an Indian, Indian ciassicai dance and music performances are mostiy enjoyed

through the presentation of the Tala or cycles of beats. It is a rhythm which incorporates

beat (as pulse) and variation on a patterned theme. A classical dancer must be able to

count Tala as precisely as a drummer and visa versa. This synchronization is carried out

in Bols. Bols are words for particular strokes of the drum rather than in numerical

counts.2 Shankar’s emphasis in choreographing his dances was not on the cyclical

structuring of time as is paramount in the classical Tala (cycles of beats) where “coming

on Sam” (a point which is both an end and a beginning - the “one”) or meeting on Sam is

critical in a composition. Rules of time are very different in his compositions. A linear

count, where time is measured in beats, was sufficient. For example, a new phrase began

on “one” but ended on the last number of that sequence whether it was four or seven or

nine. Orchestral playing and group dancing had to be synchronized. Rhythm has been

absorbed into melody as accent and beat, as opposed to dancing to the beat (Tala)

synchronically to a variety of percussion instruments, as in the classical style. In this

regard, Shankar’s dance music was much more accessible to the western audiences.

Shankar had a keen sense of the elements needed for his dances to look Indian in

style and origin and be formatted for the western stage. Some of his methods used in

Government of India, 1974.58. 2 Erdman, Joan L. Performance as Translation. Udav Shankar in the West Cambridge, MA: MTT Press. Vol 31, Spring 1987, p. 81

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choreography are where the weight, balance, and center are placed; how the head is held,

rotated and positioned; the lateral movements of the neck; the curvaceous arm; hand and

wrist movements; deflection of the torso and the waist, and graceful shifting of the body

but with stretched and elongated arms and legs. How men and women carry themselves

in a particular Indian costume, for example, the Sari for women, were also considered in

his choreography. Although no rigorous feet stomping or rhythmic syllables were

executed in most of his works, the general direction of weight placement, steps, and flow

of energy were downwards towards the earth or on an even level, but not often above

ground as seen in western ballet. Use of the entire stage space and direction changes

were essential in his choreography. Facing the back to the audience while moving a part

of the body or sometimes not moving at all was also integrated in his work. (He was

known for his famous wave movements of the back, shoulders, arms and wrists, as can be

seen in the movie Kalpana. during the dance “Labor and Machinery ”)

Tanusree Shankar, wife of the late Ananda Shankar, was this author’s dance

teacher when I joined their group in 1977. Tanusree was trained under the guidance of

Mrs. Amala Shankar in 1969 at the Uday Shankar Cultural Center in Calcutta, India, and

has performed many of Uday Shankar’s compositions, early and recent. She is the

director of the Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts and heads her own dance

company. When I asked her questions about the specialty of Uday Shankar’s

choreography, the dance compositions, which were popular among the short pieces and

longer pieces, and the compositions that attracted her the most and why, her comments

about Shankar’s choreography were as follows:

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Uday Shankar’s choreography was unique. His use of the stage, lights, costumes and dancers was complete. As he was also a painter, he was able to see the stage as a canvas. His way of highlighting a portion of the choreography was fantastic. He was a master in controlling the audience’s mind. His magic was, ‘Give the audience what they want before they know what they want.’ Among his famous pieces, ‘Dance Indra,’ ‘Kartikeya,’ ‘Gandharva,’ ‘Snake Charmer’ were outstanding. His longer work was been ‘Ram Lila’ (shadow play), which was a pioneering work; ‘Buddha,’ ‘Labour & Machinery,’ and countless others which are equally fantastic. I iiked them ail as I feei that in each work there was something new and innovative which helped me to learn.

During the author’s initial years of performing and touring with the Shankar

family, his son Ananda would tell us many stories of his father and his years growing up

with him. Ananda would always tell us that his father would say, “Give the audience

what they want before they know what they want.” This was Uday Shankar’s motto

about presentation. He believed that the audience is an integral participant in any

performance. Shankar also conveyed to his son that whatever he should do, it should be

integral to India.

Beauty, aesthetics, form shapes, lines and color was important to Uday Shankar as

is evident from his painting hung on the walls of Amala Shankar’s apartment in Calcutta.

During quieter moments of discussion or reflection after dance practice, or on one of

those long train journeys to our performing destination, Ananda told us that Baba (father)

always emphasized that a dance should look beautifully composed, it should be

aesthetically presented and the dancer should make every effort to appear beautiful in the

eyes of the audience. Uday Shankar wanted to paint a picture on stage in every

choreographic work. Through the use of specialized body language in a carefully crafted

pattern (drawing from images of the folk, tribal, traditional and classical cultures and

impressions of western theatrics), colorfully ornamented costumes, special lighting

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patterns to flow with the mood of the composition and the use of Indian instruments

placed on stage, one can realize the choreographer’s commitment to developing a vital

indigenous aesthetic in his work. Ananda Shankar told us that his father used to spend

endless hours alone in a room creating movements, and experimenting with his body

movements, which he had observed in a person or a visual effect during the day.

Anthropologist Joan L. Erdman suggests that Uday Shankar’s performances had

universal appeal and even creative hybridization. Presentation of his cultural art to

another culture’s audience is not a “circus of the exotic” or a variety show, which offers

excitement or allure.3 She says that Shankar’s work was performance as translation for

his times. Today’s performance of foreign dance traditions asks audiences to understand

the indigenous language of performance with some help of notes and announcements.

Shankar’s dance spoke for itself. According to Ms. Erdman, translation of performance to

Shankar meant universality in theme; particularization in costume, movement, music and

story; and choice of theme and style to reach and appeal to audiences already enticed by

the spirituality, exoticism and romantic allure of the east. If a choreographer uses what is

shared to communicate, what is particular to entertain, and what must be known in

explanations in an appropriately translated construction of production, the public can be

attracted to foreign performance, even if the cultural gap is wide. For the western and

westernized elites in India, the program setting was dance of limited duration and

theatrically grand settings, short dances in quick succession with costume changes, and

distinctive melodies. This is what kept the audiences’ attention.4

3 Erdman, Joan L. Performance as Translation. Udav Shankar in the East. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Vol 31 Spring 1987. P 80 •'Ibid

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Another noteworthy difference in Shankar’s compositions was that there was

no basic pose which had to be repeated. In the classical dance styles, sequential

movements emerged from a basic pose and movement returned to the basic pose.

Examples of these are the Ardhamcmdali (plie) position in Bharatanatyam dance, the

Chowka (naif plie) position in Odissi dance and the figure eight stance of Mampnrx

dance. In Shankar’s choreography, there was no such limitation. Movements were

chosen for their aesthetic and expressive quality, rather than from a given geometrical

motif. The dancer had more freedom to move about in any direction, without rhythmical

time cycle limitations or other restrictions confined to the rules of classical dancing.

Shankar’s early mythological choreographies, such as “Tandava Nrittya,” “Shiva-Parvati

Nrittya Dwandva” and “Lanka Dhana,” were composed in the 1930s when he had little

exposure to Indian dance and little training. These pieces were composed in a simple

format devised mainly for himself. The importance of these early dances is that they

represent the first attempts in India to produce ballets on the Western pattern, in which

equal importance is given to choreography, story, decor and orchestration. Shankar’s

desire for revival of Indian mythology and legend was shown through his choreography

in “Tandava Nrittya.” This piece showed him as Lord Shiva and Simki as Parvati.5 It is

clear from photographs and articles that Shankar, with his good looks, charm and

beautiful body, projected marvelous masculinity (Tandava), while Simki portrayed the

softer, feminine aspect (Lasya) required in dancing this piece. The combination of

Tandava and Lasya, the balance between masculinity and feminine power, is an

s Shiva means "the auspicious one.” It is a personification of destruction including the destruction of ego. He is usually represented as having the river Ganges running through his matted locks, wearing snakes around his neck and holding a small drum. Parvati is his wife and the goddess of power.

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important factor in Indian art, religion and philosophy. In this dance drama, symbolic

gestures are used instead of words to express the ideas and emotions. The drama opens

with the chorus lauding Shiva and Sati, his divine wife. Sati, who symbolizes conjugal

fidelity, dies of grief she suffers when her own father offends Shiva by not inviting him

to an important gathering. Shiva, in deep affliction, retires into solitude and falls into a

state of meditation; all creation is at a standstill. But Sati, through her profound devotion

to Shiva, is reborn as Parvati symbolizing the earth and desires that creation continue.

Everyday she comes to worship him and tries to wake him up from his meditation.

Meanwhile, the earth has been threatened by Gajasura, the elephant demon. One day he

encounters Parvati, and decides to abduct her. Parvati is frightened and throws herself at

the feet of Shiva asking for help. Shiva wakes and the earth trembles as he fights

Gajasura. While fighting, they throw at each other divine weapons of five elements:

wind, lightening, forces of the earth, elements in the atmosphere and sky. Shiva finally

kills Gajasura with the club provided him by Vishnu (God of preservation of the

Universe). Shiva strips the hide off the elephant demon and dances an ecstatic dance of

triumph with Parvati. He continues to dance for the creation of the world and his

admiration for Parvati. Having rid the earth of its evil forces, he decides to return to

meditation and thoughts of Sati. Parvati, desolate, begins her penance that she may find

eternal grace in the eyes of Shiva.6 According to Khokar, this piece was performed at the

end of the program because nothing else could follow it.

6 Khokar, Mohan. His Dance. His Life: A portrait of Udav Shankar. New Delhi: Himalayan Books. 1983. 172.

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This piece was composed partly using Kathakali dance style and nuances which

Shankar learned from Guru Namboodiri. This choreography had simple steps and

rhythmic foot patterns, but the success of this piece was because of Shankar’s great

energy, powerful stage presence, masculine sex-appeal, and charisma and dramatization

of the role of Shiva opposite the trained Kathakali dancer Madhavan, who played the role

of the elephant demon, Gajasura. Simki’s charming femininity acted as a perfect foil for

his masculinity. He borrowed hand gestures from Kathakali, which he used in this drama

but in his own imaginative and free-form interpretation within the context of his dance.

It was not an authentic classical structure, but it proved effective. The audience

did not have to have knowledge of hand gestures, but could make out from his

composition what they were trying to say. Other elements borrowed from Kathakali,

evident in photographs, were the use of the introductory half curtain (a big piece of cloth

held by two people at both ends hiding the central characters who enter the stage with the

curtain holders), the bulky layered costume, massive headdress, and exaggerated make­

up. “Tandava Nrittya” displayed a combination of various regional dance styles portrayed

through contemporary, dramatic presentation and movement expression. This drama was

effective and innovative and proved highly successful on the western concert stage7

Outside India, Shankar presented programs that were rooted in Indian mythology

and rural culture. In India, he attempted to introduce works derived from western sources

on contemporary themes. According to Uttara Coorlawala, Ph.D., Shankar was

influenced by contemporary work in the free dance style and industrial themes in Europe

Abrahams, Ruth. K.The Life and Art of Udav Shankar. New York University, 1986.124-125.

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through one of his dancers, Zhora Segal, who studied in Germany under Hanya

Holm. This led him to produce expressionist ballets such as “Rhythm of Life” and

“Labour and Machinery.” His use of improvisation to generate movement and the desire

to reflect industrialization of society through dance, shows western influence on his

works.8

His ballet “Labor and Machinery” (1940) showed the sensitive man’s reaction to

the ugly mechanization of life. It dealt with the conflict of man and machine, but ended

with man as master. This ballet showed affinities with the ballet Le Pas d ’Acier staged

by the Ballet Russes in Paris in 1927 at a time when Shankar was working in Paris. Le

Pas d'Acier was inspired by Russian constructivisim, which had been initiated in the

Soviet Union in the early twenties. It ended with dances suggestive of machinery in

motion. In his choreography, Shankar developed constructivist ideas in his own way

(including machine dances). This idea was fresh and stimulating in India at that time, and

Shankar used it to portray his own idea of the relationship of man with machine.9

In “Labor and Machinery,” village folk toil and labor in the country and are

satisfied with their simple way of living. The old grandfather of the village is happy

seeing them working and busy. Three persons, the Profiteer, the Merchant and the

Religious Hypocrite, combine in an endeavor to exploit these villages. They try to

convert an energetic young man to work in the factory and buy machine-made goods.

The proselytizer steps in and says there is nothing but God. The Grandfather is against

machinery, but the young man is fascinated and leads the villagers to go and join the

8 Coorlawala, Uttara Asha, Classical and Contemporary Indian Dance: Overview. Criteria and a Choroegraphic Analysis. New York University. Dissertation, 1994,220. 9 Hall. Fernau, Honoring Udav Shankar. Dance Chronical, 1984. 336.

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factory, where they worship the machines on the opening day, as they have worshipped

their tools. Gradually their labor converts them into automatons, crushing their

independence, feelings and thoughts. Other people are led to work as directed. The

young man is tortured by seeing the misery he has brought to people of his village. He

struggles to break away, but finds himself dancing to the tune of the Profiteer. The old

man tries to help him out but he is drawn back again.

There is a movement to strike against the inhuman conditions, but it is crushed by

law. The employees and the master are unhappily bound together. At last, the young man

breaks free of the bond and takes his people back with him to the old grandfather, to the

country. The profiteer comes to lure them back to the factory again. The people get

together and decide that they will not allow the machines to crush them any longer. The

grandfather brings them together, and a new understanding based on mutual trust, faith in

higher ideals of human life, justice and equality grows, and they celebrate with dances

and songs. This initiates the realization of a new era, a link between science and

spirituality, where the machine no longer stands as an emblem of destruction, killing

body, mind and soul but becomes an instrument of help and support. It becomes the

means of widening intellectual horizon, promoting understanding, prosperity and

happiness.10

The dances in this ballet involve jerky, geometrical and arithmetical movements

which are not based on any specific rhythmic beats (Tala) or any specific melodic

patterns (Raga). Folk and classical dance idioms are synthesized in the choreography to

10 Banerji, Projesh, Udav Shankar and His Art Delhi:B.R. publishing Corporation, 1982. 91.

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interpret daily life activities of village people. The dancers walk or march in a

line to the steady beat of a drum to relocate from one point to another. Percussion

instruments dominate and are used as accompaniment throughout. The dancers are seen

huddled in a group or move clustered in small groups. They are expressionless and move

as if they are foiiowing orders by someone. Sometimes they make repetitious snort-

syllable noises that are shrill and pained, sound like “OW” or imitate the noise of an

engine failing or stopping. There is a great deal of skillful manipulation of the arms,

moving rhythmically while creating various shapes by bending the joints while the feet

are marching or walking. The costume for women is a skirt and a long, loose, apron­

like top with handkerchiefs covering their heads; for the men, it is suspenders worn

crossed without a shirt, and a long, loose apron-like material covering shorts. The

costumes appear less attractive, not brightly colored, and reminds one of factory

workers’ uniforms. The movements showed the dehumanizing effect machines have on

man when man is treated like a machine.

“Snanam” (bathing) is a short composition done in the Kathakali style, which

was, and still is, a very popular piece. In this piece, a group of girls go out to gather

flowers and one of them is stung by a bee. They see water nearby and decide to bathe.

They undress and get into the water. They swim and play and occasionally check to see

if anyone is coming. Suddenly, they hear footsteps. Frightened, they rush out of the

water, put on their clothes in a hurry and run away.

One of the reasons that Shankar was so successful in his work and managed to

compete with classical styles of solo dance in India was because he was a seasoned

professional. Shankar applied all the knowledge he gained from working with Pavlova

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about presentation. He regulated every detail of the performances with great care, the

dancing was highly polished and disciplined, every dancer came on stage exactly when

required, they maintained perfect alignment with other dancers in group choreography,

the curtain went up on time and he was able to achieve the highest standard in lighting

and costume design. Outside India, he presented a type of Indian dance that couid easily

be assimilated by Western audiences.

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TEACHING METHODS AND PHILOSOPHY OF INDIAN DANCE

Uday Shankar broke away from the classical dance traditions o f India and laid the

foundations for what may be termed as modem dance of India. During Shankar’s artistic

and personal growth, he evolved a specific philosophy about Indian dance and the art of

dance. Shankar believed that the spiritualism of the Hindu culture should be preserved,

but not specifically through the traditional structures, though he viewed the traditional

classical dance forms with great respect. He thought that one should learn from the

ancient heritage and culture, and build from these in order to proceed into the future. In

1976, a year before Shankar died, writer and author Mohan Khokar asked Shankar in an

interview what dancing meant to him. Shankar replied,“Dance is my life. When I dance,

I am nearer to God. I am not myself, what else is God or prayer?” When asked if dancing

is worship for him, he replied, “No, I do not mean it that way. It is sacred, very sacred.”1

Shankar acknowledged and wanted to understand Indian ancient traditional art.

He had great respect for it and found classical art beautiful and educational. He wanted to

know the past and its importance to the present, but he did not want to completely have

the past dominate his artistic work. He wanted to retain the spiritualism of his culture but

not specifically through traditional means. He wanted to represent Indian culture

1 Khokar. Mohan, His Dance. His Life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar. Delhi: Himalayan Books. 1983. 165.

48

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through innovative and non-traditional visual design and illustrations. He wanted

to present dance that is Indian in origin and spirit, but modem in presentation with a

universal appeal.2 This was Shankar’s philosophy of creative dance. For example, when

he studied Kathakali dance with Gum Namboodiri, he studied the Hasta Mudras

(Madrasj or hand gestures used in classical dancing to convey a meaning in narrative

dancing. Every classically trained dancer in India is required to learn, memorize and

execute the Hasta Mudras perfectly, and with great ease, from the beginning of their

training. Knowledge of this is of the utmost importance in classical dancing. However, it

can be seen in photographs and videotapes of dance pieces composed by Shankar that he

hardly used most of the Mudras to convey meaningful narration. Khokar writes in his

book about Shankar, “Though Shankar well learned the hasta-mudras, he had little

fascination for them.”3 In an interview with Khokar, Shankar stated that he tried to avoid

Mudras as much as possible to make a statement such as ‘I feel angry!’ He felt that the

same statement could be shown using the entire body in motion.4

In a 1950 Amrita Bazar Patrika newspaper article Shankar stated, “The essence

and soul of the art of Indian dancing ...is spiritual, which is the guiding element in all

Hindu art.”5 In his interview with author Khokar before his death, Shankar spoke of the

importance of cultivating proper development of the human body for a dancer.

According to him, this was not only for the dance itself but to manifest intrinsic beauty

from within. He expressed the desire to teach young people to value the body and

3 The Asian Age, Calcutta. 7 August 1997, p. 16 3 Ibid, p. 166 4 Ibid. 167 5 Abrahams, Ruth Karen, The Life and Art of Udav Shankar. New York University, 1986, 175.

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emphasized those young dancers should work diligently towards developing and

perfecting their bodies. A dancer should realize what a beautiful instrument the body is

and make it aesthetically beautiful for dance.6

After his second American tour in 1938, Uday Shankar retired from concert

performing and touring to open a center for dance and music in India. The Uday Shankar

India Culture Center began conducting its classes on March 3, 1940, in Almora, situated

in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. Shankar taught the first class of the morning

a class open to all students and guests visiting for a short while. In that class, simple

exercises such as walking, clapping and rhythmic variations were taught in order to

develop coordination and concentration skills. This was followed by a technique class,

open to the students of the Center only. The main focus of this class was to exercise

different parts of the body through yoga to make it supple and fit for doing various

movements. After that, different creative or non-classical movements were taught. In the

evening, an improvisation class was taught. Shankar sat in the center of the room playing

a drum. He provided a steady and simple rhythm to the participants who were given a

theme, and told to improvise a dance on that theme. At the same time, the musicians were

told to improvise music for the dance. A new theme was provided everyday and at the

end of class, these experiments in improvisation were discussed and analyzed by the

participants for improvement and expanding ideas. Shankar emphasized four basic

elements for technical development. They were: observation, imitation, concentration and

imagination. His classes lasted between forty-five minutes to an hour.

6 Khokar, Mohan His Dance. His Life: A portrait of Udav Shankar. Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1983,163.

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Discipline, efficiency, coordination, synchronization, polish, professionalism,

were some of the invaluable tools Shankar learned earlier during his association with

William Rothenstein and while he performed with Anna Pavlova. These tools were

applied in his teaching when he conducted classes, and it continued thereafter at the Uday

Shankar Cultural Center. These ground ruies set by him in teaching a dance ciass

provided care to students, an experience not found in other dance classes in Calcutta.

Shankar made sure that discipline was observed at the Center. He insisted on

punctuality in class and a courteous manner towards fellow students. People were

expected to leave their shoes outside of the class in an orderly manner, and greet one

another in the traditional Indian greeting of Namaskar with folded hands and slight

bowing of the head. The dance-training program at the Almora Center was not designed

to teach individual dance pieces to students, but rather it was training to be a dancer and

to be creative in movement. From this training, the students had to search within

themselves to create their own vocabulary and develop their own composition when they

danced.

There were twenty-one enrollees from all over India on March 15, 1941.

Enrollment was open to all who wanted to attend and could afford the 720 Rupees per-

year tuition. Scholarships were given to exceptionally talented students who could not

pay the fee. This course was a five-year diploma program. Summer classes were offered

to those who wanted to accelerate their program and enhance their knowledge of the

classes offered.7

' Abrahams, Ruth K.. The Life and Ait of Udav Shankar. New York, University, 1986,172.

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Shankar wanted the students to understand what his movements were all about.

This method of teaching was different from the traditional dance teaching method, where

the student watched the teacher perform a certain movement and then imitated him or her

until they could execute it. In Shankar’s class, rather than expecting the student to watch

and imitate the movements of the teacher, the expectation was to analyze the movements

according to the student’s use of space and emotion involved in the theme of the

movement. This method required concentration and innovation. The use of one’s

imagination allowed freedom of movement, and greater artistic expression given to that

particular movement. It permitted the student to personalize the experience. At the end of

each month, the students presented a program in which they performed their own

choreographed dance pieces accompanied by their own directed music. This work was

assessed and discussed by the students with Shankar’s guidance.8

The author’s first observation of Shankar’s class was in the late 1970s when the

author was a member of his son’s dance company. This class was held at the Uday

Shankar Cultural Centre in Calcutta and was being taught by his wife Amala. The class

started promptly on time. The students settled into a hushed silence when Amala entered

and greeted her with the traditional “Namaskar” with folded hands. As Amala took a seat

in her chair, the students lined up in two rows. First they were asked to show what they

had learned in the previous class. In each class there were musicians present who played

while the students danced. They showed detailed movements of the shoulder and arms;

various ways of manipulating the shoulder blade; in circles, front and back movements,

jerking up and down movements, shimmying both and soft alternate rolling. Then they

8 Khokar, Mohan, His Dance. His Life: A Portrait of Udav Shankar. Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1983,99.

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did the rippling of the arm and hands. This wave movement of the hands was Shankar’s

creation, which is being used by many choreographers today. The movement originates

from the shoulders and ripples down to the joints of the arm, down to the fingertip and

reverts back to the shoulder. Shankar was well known for this creation and use of this

wave movement in various angles. Not only punctuality of attendance was strictiy

observed but also punctuality of timing for a particular movement of a body part was

emphasized. If one did not have an innate sense of rhythm, timing and spacing, these

basic essentials were taught again and again under the guidance of Amala Shankar.

After doing this exercise for a while, Amala got up to teach. She asked everyone

to mimic her. With her back to them, with feet together and hands by her side, she began

to move gently side to side. The shoulders led and the head followed and dropped to the

right side. Then she repeated the same on the left side. The movement seemed like a

willow tree blowing in the wind. She stepped back after awhile and watched, while

clapping to give a beat of four counts to complete the movement. Next, she taught an

exaggeration of the movement. She used the torso to push and lead the movement with a

slight sideways jerk. Then the shoulders followed and the head came last. This was a

continuous and elaborate side-to-side movement of the upper body. Amala looked so

graceful doing this and most of the students mimicked her well. Those who could not do

the movement were asked to move off to a comer and practice it with a partner, facing

each other. This was a lesson in how to use the upper body in various ways to make

waves and ripples. After this, she asked one of the senior students to come forward and

demonstrate a step previously learned. She wanted to observe who had properly learned

it and who had not. She directed the senior students to teach it to the others and observed

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how it was being taught. She marked the weaker students and corrected them, explaining

the technique in slow motion. She told them in a serious and strict voice to learn it

properly by the next class so that they could come forward and perform it on their own.

In the class, knowledge of a gesture or movement style would be provided by

telling students where the movement originated from, what direction it should take, and

where it would end. Shankar’s teaching style extended to perfecting a segment of the

body even for the smallest of movements, for clarity and for synchronization with beat.

Any complex movement would be broken down to a smaller piece and practiced until the

student felt comfortable with it, and then the rest would be added on to complete the set.

Repetition and practice of any one movement to perfect it was common. Since his dances

were highly polished and presented in a professional manner on stage, Shankar applied

the same theory in the classroom setting by the rule of repetition and practice in order to

achieve confidence and professionalism in his students.

His style was based on movement generated by using the entire body in

relationship to the given space. He did not have set conditions or restrictions when

creating his movements. His teaching method and technical development for movement

vocabulary were based on observation, imitation, concentration and imagination. The

concept of observation and imitation as tools for learning dance was structured more on

the Western method of teaching than on the applications within the established method

taught by Gurus of the classical form. Shankar encouraged the students to analyze and

understand the movements according to the performer’s use of space and spatial

relationships. This would lead to concentration. The students were encouraged to use

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their own imagination to create individually and give the movement a personal touch.

Shankar’s dances followed the Western model of exposition, development.

Femau Hall writes in the article HonoringUuday Shankar.

The Shankar technique begins with curving movements of interlocked hands and then moves on through curving movements of arms, head, torso, and legs. (It is possible that Uday Shankar derived one of his most characteristic movements - a wave stretching from one extended fingertip to the other - from Ruth St. Dennis’s dance Incense) The movements are performed to counts, and gradually the counting becomes more complex. The footwork, unlike the intricate beaten footwork in classical Indian dancing, is all of a piece with the movements of the rest of the body: The dancers use simple stepping and skipping movements, keeping in time with the counting. Uday Shankar was happy to bring great Kathakali and Bharata Natayam gurus to Almora, but as choreographer he showed no interest in the complex footwork they taught: he preferred to keep to simple rhythms, investing them with his own nobility.9

Mrs. Mousumi Bhandary, a former student of the Uday Shankar Cultural Center

in Calcutta, now lives in Fargo, North Dakota, with her husband and two children. She

was trained by Shankar’s wife Amala, who taught the 45-minute classes. She remembers

the class began with the students walking in a circle to counts of one to eight. The

students would be instructed to make a certain movement to a certain number. For

example, on number four they would be asked to raise and shake their hands up in the air.

Then on number eight, they would be asked to do a jump in the air. In this way, they were

instructed to perform different movements to specific numbers while walking in a circle.

At the end the students would create sequences of movements to the beat of the drum.

Mousumi remembered another lesson where the students were instructed to project a

certain thought through a still pose. The students were asked to run up to a certain spot

and hold a pose signifying a thought. If the thought were depression, then each student

9 Hall. Femau, Dance Chronicle. Honoring Udav Shankar. New York 1984, Vol. 6. p 343.

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would create depression with their bodies and hold a pose next to another student. At the

end, there would be a formation of a cluster of poses indicating a depressed mood.10

Another exercise in class was forming numbers and alphabets using the entire

body. The students were also taught to ask for something in various ways. For example,

they were instructed to ask for blessings from God. They had to show the many different

ways they could come up with that gesture. Mousumi does not, however, remember

doing any form of rigorous exercises or stretching in class before starting these lessons.

There was no training of Mudras (hand gestures) in this class nor any abhinaya or

dramatic interpretations. Classical dance classes were also offered at the Centre on a

separate date and time for anyone who wanted to learn.

Tanusree Shankar joined the Uday Shankar Cultural Center, Calcutta, in 1969.

She commented that, at that time, she was taught under the guidance of Amala: “We

‘walked to dance’. We would start walking and from that a number of movements would

evolve.” When I asked her if her method of teaching the Shankar technique was the

same, she replied “my method is based on the lines of the above - but I am more

analytical. I believe in making the most difficult movement sound easy and achievable.

This makes the student more confident of themselves.”11

Uday Shankar suffered from his first heart attack in 1966, when he was touring

the North Eastern State of Assam, and then suffered two more attacks. One of the attacks

caused cerebral hemorrhage, which changed the look of his face and the texture of his

skin. In his declining years, he tried valiantly to reassert himself as a dancer, because this

10 Interview with Mrs. Mousumi Bhandary Fargo, North Dakota, April 15,2000. 11 Correspondences with Mrs. Tanusree Shankar by e-mail Friday 15 October 2000.

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was the only image he cherished and longed for people to remember. His failing

health did not permit him to fulfil his dream. In the grey years, when he became old, he

became sick, worn out and exhausted; this was caused by ailments and emotional

tantrums, which left him helpless. He believed he was unwanted, and did not feel a sense

of belonging within his own peopie. He separated himseif from his famiiy due to

emotional despair and the need to be alone. He still maintained visions and dreams of

teaching and starting a production. Most of all, he wanted to dance even if it was in the

privacy o f his own room. His doctors ordered him to rest only. The only other thing he

could do was to dream.12

On February 23, 1976, Shankar applied for the Neheru Fellowship, a prestigious

award named after India’s first Prime Minister, Jahawarlal Nehru. This fellowship would

have provided for him 3,000.00 rupees a month for two years, which would be equal to

about 75.00 US dollars at today’s rate. It would have also provided 10,000.00 rupees per

year contingency funds; this is equal to about $250. In his application he wrote:

Over the long 52 years starting from painting and then dancing, I had chances to witness both folk and classical dances of all the nations of the world and found that they were all different from each other. Even in India, we have so many different kinds of dances, though the human body is the same all over. I found out with my experiences of the past that the root of all dances of the world is the body and the mind and the past cultural heritage of the nations. So I worked out a method of my own. This is to prepare the mind and the body and to make the body an effective instrument before taking up any kind of dance of the world. Not only that, besides dancers, it will help both men and women of any profession and of any age such as doctors, engineers, businessmen, lawyers, actors, musicians, etc. It starts with walking- just walking, and through this method of mine, some problems are created, and then one starts feeling that he has never known his body before. As he goes on, after few months he realizes that how wonderful his body is, and this body can create thousands of patterns... This method helps to develop

12 Ibid.

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the sense of rhythm - the art of creating environment- organization - discipline - imagination - calculation - concentration - observation- alertness - improvisation- inspiration - ...sense of space - sense of group feeling - ... creating an image of dance form in the mind before action - civic sense - knowledge of culture and its effect on one’s own life - an above all the sense of self criticism. In 1940, I tried out this method in my Almora Centre for 5 years and I had tremendous success....Now I want to start this course for the first time in Calcutta. And for this I need suitable halls to work in with as many students as possible and a residential fiat for my living nearby or attached to the nails... n

Although Shankar wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi

to support his mission, he did not get the Nehru scholarship. He felt betrayed by India and

lamented. He felt alone and rejected, although others in society hailed him and respected

him for the genius he was. Uday Shankar received his last award in 1976 from

Rabindranath Tagore’s Viswa Bharati University. It was an Honorary Doctorate award in

Literature. But Uday Shankar was not appeased or impressed. Awards and degrees

reminded him of what he had been, not what he could be. He was alone and bored and

frequently in and out of the hospital due to critical illness. On September 11, 1977, he

was admitted to the Calcutta Medical Research Institute. The West Bengal Government

set up a team of top medical specialists to monitor his progress and senior government

officials stepped in to accommodate for whatever was needed and to make sure that the

best of care was given to him. Uday Shankar died on the morning of September 26,

1977, in Calcutta, India.

13 Ibid.

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CONCLUSION

Uday Shankar was one of the pioneers of dance in the first half of the twentieth

century. He is regarded as the first Indian modem dancer who initiated a free style of

dance and music, significantly different from the classical dance traditions predominant

in India in the 1920s and 1930s. He also introduced the art of “ballet” dancing in India.

The word “ballet” is known in India as a general term for narrative dance forms involving

several performers. He helped initiate the overall renaissance of Indian dance in the

1930s and brought respect to the art at a time when dance had declined from a once

consecrated position among the rituals conducted by the priests in the ancient temples.

Public dance performances in India were dormant. Prominent members of Indian society

shunned the venerable tradition of dance, whose origin was traceable through mythology

to the gods themselves. Indian dance tradition, until Shankar’s efforts, was perceived as

a contemptible practice of prostitutes and degenerates.

Shankar presented dance as a serious concert art. He was knowledgeable about

western audiences’ expectation of Indian dance from his earlier experiences while living

abroad. Shankar presented his dances in a serious and professional manner. The

combination of his innovative dance choreography, colorful costumes, melody, rhythm,

narrative and artistic lighting helped audiences understand what they enjoyed, for

Shankar’s performances had tremendous impact and success with audiences. Shankar’s

59

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presentational style and dance creations stirred an emotional and aesthetic interaction in

his audience’s mind, which made them view his work of art intellectually, and set a new

standard of professionalism for Indian dance performances on stage. It led to national

pride in the dance art of India, and acceptance of the practice of all styles of dances.

uday Shankar seemed to be blessed with the innate quality of originating dance

movements and executing them simultaneously without preplanning. His inner vision

and keen sense of observing and retaining aesthetics of movement, shape, form and color

from nature and from day to day activities of people, helped him to combine creation

with execution. In discussing Uday Shankar’s dance with wife Amala Sankar, she told

me,

His style was altogether very different from what you see as Uday Shankar’s style of dance presented today. He had a remarkable sense of observing people and how they moved about, what they must be thinking. He would copy or mimic them - their moves and put a thought process behind the movements and create a dance from it. He loved nature. You can see from his paintings in the room how much he loved nature and color. These things inspired him as well.1

Shankar inculcated in his students a sense of observation and improvisation. This

is one of his greatest contributions to his technique and choreography. He encouraged

the freedom to express one’s thought process in dancing differently from the traditional

norm or from the standard norm.

The students are encouraged to move about in a manner that I have not seen before or that they have not experienced before. In this way we start to create something totally new. If they show me something I have seen or I know they copied from somewhere else, I say to them don’t show me that which I know already or you have seen from somewhere. Break apart that same movement to show me something you didn’t know you could do. This is what he used to do. In the art of improvisation, he did not strictly stick to any outside set of rules. He was very unique and natural in his inner-directed movement response to am image

1 Personal interview with Amala Shankar, widow of Uday Shankar, Calcutta, India, 6 July 1999.

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or an idea or a sensory stimulus. After all, you have to remember he was a trained painter.2

Amala Shankar also told me that Uday would spend hours alone in his studio,

explore his own subconscious and start creating dance spontaneously. One can surmise

that the contributions of Shankar’s western education as a young adult and the on-going

experience with western dancers and western concert dance performances had a great

impact on his artistic development.

Shankar must have learned and retained the discipline about analyzing, reflecting,

integrating and evaluating dance movements and using it in choreography earlier on, for

all of these elements were apparent in his work. This is what made his style, technique,

choreography and presentation unique and different from the rest. It set a new tone for

future dance performances in India. From analyzing he learned to separate and define

movements which led to the creation of his own style. It allowed attention to detail and

clarity, for which his compositions were known. Shankar would invest hours into

thinking and reflecting on his creations. This added objectivity and perspective into his

works. The process of integrating folk arts, classical arts, and western theatrics, as well

as disciplining the body through yoga and western stage performance techniques, spurred

creativity and made his work new and modem.

Shankar knew about the dance-music relationship and how to present it through

his work to his audience. He did not simply put movements to music, which makes

music the main emphasis or starting point or the initiating agent. He broke away from

this traditional norm and made movement the source of dance and music the

2 My continued discussion with Amala in her apartment about they way she conducts her classes at the Uday Shankar Center.

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accompaniment to help achieve the intent. Because his dances were not meant to be pure

entertainment or easy consumption, and because they were presented in a perceivable and

more accessible manner, his dance style challenged the spectators’ perceptions and ideas.

Even though Shankar deviated from the traditional means to convey meanings in his

dances, his mannerisms, use of body and perceived movements wouid teii the thought

process behind it and stimulate the audience’s senses, evoking images and sensations

easily understood. His work revealed his attitude and viewpoint towards the state of the

art.

As an artist, dancer, choreographer and teacher, Uday Shankar possessed an inner

sentience that took his art beyond craft. It allowed him to create a unique statement that

involved the perceiver in some meaningful way. He was able to achieve this as a dancer,

teacher and choreographer. These are the tools that assisted Uday Shankar to create a

lasting legacy in his works. Shankar’s commitment to create, mold and give form to a

new idea — a new dance method -- influenced many of his students and contemporaries to

continue his philosophy about contemporary Indian dance.

After Uday Shankar, there appeared many choreographers whose works derived

from their direct association with him. These include Narendra Sharma in New Delhi,

Shachin Shankar and Yogen Desai in Bombay, Shanti Bardan, Mrs. Amala Shankar, his

daughter, Mamata and his late son’s wife, Tanusree Shankar, in Calcutta. These artists

have produced Indian ballet compositions such as: “Discovery of India,” “Ram Lila,”

“Ramayana,” “Cricket,” “Train,” “Megh Doot (cloud messenger)” “Hungry Stones,” and

others modeled after Uday Shankar’s ballet style of production. The three Shankar

women are keeping his legend and work of modem Indian dance alive through their

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companies, although all three of them have very different purposes and objectives behind

their works.

Uday Shankar’s daughter-in-law, Tanusree Shankar and her late husband, Ananda

Shankar, has advanced a step beyond most of these choreographers. They have started

the integrating process of eastern and western dance and assimilating thoughts through

intercultural and a study exchange program. They recently began an exchange program

in their school (The Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts) for learning dance

technique of the west, particularly America. The program enables senior dancers to stay

in America for a short while to teach the Shankar technique and at the same time, learn

something that western modem dance has to offer. American choreographers and

dancers who are looking for the Indian experience are welcome to teach and conduct

modem western dance in their school. Talented students who show potential are

encouraged to take workshops with these modem dance teachers. These modem dance

choreographs then present their work through performances with the Shankar students in

Calcutta. Looking at Tanusree Shankar’s dance company today, it is possible to see

physical evidence of more western dance influences, with leg raises, kicks, structuring

and uses of the body parts in a way that were never allowed during Shankar’s lifetime.

Openness to the western style of using and manipulating the body, and the

emotional and psychological thought process which accompany it, was not encouraged

during the years when Shankar was alive. Today, that mindset has changed; their

objective is to collaborate artistically with western modem dancers and study in their

schools. The purpose is to be acquainted with contemporary dance forms, which have

developed outside India, and to incorporate them in the Shankar technique. Dance

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exchanges at Shankar’s daughter-in-law’s school have brought to India such artists as

Andre Tyson of the Alvin Ailey school, Jacqulyn Buglisi, exponent of the Martha

Graham school, and Jan Freeman, a member of the Batter Dance Company of New York.

Tanusree Shankar has visited the Alvin Ailey School in New York and introduced

the Shankar style of dance to Ailey’s dancers. Tanusree notes that her company prefers to

find out about the exotic styles outside of India in the dance world rather than about the

classical forms in India. “Learners in India go in for one classical form or the other. But

we insist on finding about what is happening outside the country as well. We extract

what we think is suitable for exotic dance forms and add to our own.”3 Their technique

now incorporates extractions of suitable material from other dance forms of the west. In

an interview in the Asian Age newspaper dated 7 August 1997, when asked if the exotic

contemporary styles tamper with the purity of the Uday Shankar style, Tanusree said:

“We would like to make clear that the Shankar Technique is only a path that we follow.

Keeping that in mind, we let ourselves free to create new movements. We emphasize the

fact that each of us is a creator. My father-in-law (Uday Shankar) had choreographed

Shiva with an open mind. He had been influenced by various styles from around the

world.” The Tanusree Shankar dance style is called New Age Dance.

3 The Asian Age. Calcutta. 7 August 1997, 1 6.

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