Uday Shankar

Uday Shankar (born December 8, 1900, Udaipur, India—died September 26, 1977, Kolkata (Calcutta)) was a major dancer and choreographer of India whose adaptation of Western theatrical techniques to traditional Hindu dance popularized the ancient art form in India, Europe, and the United States.

Shankar began formal art training in Mumbai in 1917 and two years later studied at the Royal College of Art in London. During the 1920s he danced with the ballerina Anna Pavlova and created two dances, Hindu Wedding and the duet Radha and Krishna, for inclusion in her program Oriental Impressions. Returning to India in 1929, Shankar formed his own dance company. His troupe toured Europe in 1930 and from 1932 until the 1960s regularly appeared in the United States. In 1938 he founded the Uday Shankar India Culture Centre in Almora, Uttaranchal (now Uttarakhand). (The school for dance, drama, and music closed during World War II but reopened in 1965 in Kolkata.) Together with his brother, the sitarist Ravi Shankar, he explored classical and folk dance and created dance dramas that included social comment. Although Shankar’s work was criticized by adherents of traditional Indian dance, his supporters included such eminent Indians as the poet Rabindranath Tagore.