Seema Kaushik Mehta | |
|---|---|
 in March 2019 | |
| Born | c.1976 |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Education | Academy of Art College in San Francisco |
| Occupation(s) | dancer and jewellery designer |
| Known for | Nari Shakti Puraskar award |
Seema Kaushik Mehta (born c.1976) is an Indian Kathak expert and designer of jewellery. She received the Nari Shakti Puraskar award for her dancing advocacy in 2019 after working with under-privileged children in Mumbai.
She was born in about 1976 [1] and she studied at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. [2]
She became a Chitresh Das disciple in 2010 and followed his ideas until his death in 2015. She trained with him and would perform his style of dancing in India. [3] She and Pandit Das founded the second branch of his school in India, Chhandam Nritya Bharati, in Mumbai in 2010. Mehta's mentor had taught Kathak dance to the children of sex workers in Calcutta to help them break free of the cycle of exploitation. [4]
Mehta was given the Nari Shakti Puraskar award on International Women's Day in 2019. [5] 1000 women were nominated for the award and 44 were chosen to receive it. She was chosen because of her work with under-privileged children in Mumbai. They were learning to dance, but also to assert themselves. Maneka Gandhi was at the ceremony and spoke about the ambition of women in India. [1]
Mehta appeared with American tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith. Samuels Smith had previously toured with her mentor. Kathak and tap dancing complement each other as both use the feet with the major difference being footwear as Kathak is done bare foot. [6]
Mehta runs a school Chhandam Nritya Bharati and is still involved in jewelry design. She says that jewellery design and dance are both part of her life. She is the creative director in her family's jewellery business. [2]
Chitresh Das was a classical dancer of the North Indian style of Kathak. Born in Calcutta, Das was a performer, choreographer, composer and educator. He was instrumental in bringing Kathak to the US and is credited with having established Kathak amongst the Indian diaspora in America. In 1979, Das established the Chhandam School of Kathak and the Chitresh Das Dance Company in California. In 2002, he founded Chhandam Nritya Bharati in India. There were ten branches of Chhandam worldwide. Until his death in 2015, Das taught dance as a way of life, a path for attaining self-knowledge and as a service to society.
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Roshan Kumari Fakir Mohammad is an Indian classical dancer, actor and choreographer, considered by many as one of the foremost exponents of the Indian classical dance form of Kathak. She follows the Jaipur Gharana and is the founder of Nritya Kala Kendra, Mumbai, an academy promoting Kathak. A recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1975, she received the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri from the Government of India in 1984.
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Media related to Seema Mehta at Wikimedia Commons