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Tara Chaudhri was an exponent of Indian classical dance. Believed to have hailed from Lahore, she trained under different maestros of dance, and went on to be acclaimed for her versatility and contributions to the dance forms of Kathak, Manipuri, Kathakali and Bharathnatyam. She was described as the "Pavlova of Punjab" and earned acclaim and respect from international contemporaries. [1]
She traveled to South India in 1943 to train further in South Indian dance forms of Kathakalli. Her initiation to Bharathnatyam remains a bit of a mystery, as per some accounts she might have learned the dance during her stay in South India, but according to a 1942 pamphlet, she ran a dance school and taught ‘Bharata Natya’ in Lahore, the cultural capital of North India before Independence. She is known to have trained under Guru Meenakshisundaram Pillai, considered as the prominent founder of Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam, Indian dance. [2]
As the principal dance partner of Ram Gopal, an Indian modernist dancer and choreographer, she traveled throughout India and Ceylon. Her natural grace and supple movements, along with an ability to express a repertoire of emotions awed audiences and garnered acclaim from art critics, though her modernist style was criticized by some.
Tara Chaudhri is, perhaps, even greater than Russia’s Anna Pavlova. Her sense of time and rhythm is perfect and her wonderful mastery of the various styles of Indian dancing puts her in a class by herself
— attributed to Vallathol
She founded and maintained a dancing school in Madras for a few years. She trained her students and worked on introducing new ballets and numbers based on traditional dance techniques. She also envisioned the establishment of a Dance University in India, which would focus on research and propagation of Indian folk and classical dancing in its myriad forms [3]
Uday Shankar was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, which he later popularised in India, Europe, and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a pioneer of modern dance in India.
Perumanoor Gopinathan Pillai, more popularly known as Guru Gopinath was a well known actor-cum-dancer. He is well regarded as the greatest preserver of the dance tradition. He is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Fellowship, and the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award.
Rukmini Devi Arundale was an Indian theosophist, dancer and choreographer of the Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam, and an activist for animal welfare.
Sitara Devi was an Indian dancer of the classical Kathak style of dancing, a singer, and an actress. She was the recipient of several awards and accolades, and performed at several prestigious venues in India and abroad; including the Royal Albert Hall, London (1967) and at the Carnegie Hall, New York (1976).
The Pandanallur style is a style of Bharatanatyam Indian dance. It is mainly attributed to Dance Guru Meenakshi sundaram Pillai (1869–1964), a dance guru who lived in the village of Pandanallur, in the Thanjavur district in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Gadar: Ek Prem Katha is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language romantic period action drama film directed by Anil Sharma from a story written by Shaktimaan Talwar and was set during the Partition of India in 1947. Loosely based on the life of Boota Singh, the film stars Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel in lead roles alongside Amrish Puri, Lillete Dubey and Vivek Shauq. Sharma's son Utkarsh as a child artist plays Deol and Patel's son. Patel bagged Sakeena's role out of 500 girls who auditioned for the role.
Lakshmi Shankar was an Indian singer and a noted Hindustani classical. Born into a south Indian Hindu family, she became an outstanding Hindustani vocalist of the Patiala Gharana and married Rajendra Shankar, brother of Uday Shankar, a Bengali by birth. She was known for her performances of khyal, thumri, and bhajan. She was the sister-in-law of sitar player Ravi Shankar and the mother-in-law of violinist L. Subramaniam.
Bissano Ram Gopal OBE was an Indian dancer and choreographer who performed mostly as a soloist and toured extensively throughout his lengthy career. A modernist, he blended the classical Indian dance with balletic choreography, and along with Uday Shankar was among the first to showcase Indian classical dance in the West starting in the 1930s, Polish critic Tadeusz Zelenski called him "the Nijinsky of India".
Kanak Rele was an Indian dancer, choreographer, and academic best known as an exponent of Mohiniyattam. She was the founder-director of the Nalanda Dance Research Centre and the founder-principal of the Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya in Mumbai.
Alarmel Valli is a leading Indian classical dancer and choreographer and the foremost exponent of the Pandanallur style in the Indian classical dance form, Bharatanatyam. She is widely acclaimed for her ability to turn traditional grammar into deeply internalized, personal dance poetry.
Madhavi Mudgal is an Indian classical dancer known for her Odissi dance style. She has won several awards, including the Sanskriti Award, 1984, President of India's award of Padma Shri, 1990, the Orissa State Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, 1996, Grande Medaille de la Ville by Govt. of France, 1997, Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, 2000, Delhi State Parishad Samman, 2002 and the title of Nritya Choodamani in 2004.
Shanno Khurana is a noted Indian classical vocalist and composer, from the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana of Hindustani classical music. A disciple of the doyen of the gharana, Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, she is known for performing rare bandish and raag, though her singing style includes genres like khayal, tarana, thumri, dadra, tappa, to chaiti and bhajan. Born and brought up in Jodhpur, she started singing on All India Radio in 1945 in Lahore, later shifted to Delhi, where she continued her singing on All India Radio, Delhi and in concerts and music festivals. She also pursued music education, finally earning her M.Phil. and PhD in music from the Kairagarh University, and has undertakes extensive research on folk music of Rajasthan.
Bharati Shivaji is an Indian classical dancer of Mohiniyattom, choreographer and author, known for her contributions to the art form by way of performance, research and propagation. She is the founder of Center for Mohiniyattam, a dance academy promoting Mohiniyattom and the co-author of two books, Art of Mohiniyattom and Mohiniyattom. She is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Sahitya Kala Parishad Samman. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2004, for her contributions to Indian classical dance.
Meenakshi Chitharanjan, an Indian classical dancer, teacher and choreographer, is known as an exponent of the Pandanallur style of the classical dance form of Bharatanatyam. She is the founder of Kaladiksha, an institution promoting Bharatanatyam and striving to preserve the Pandanallur tradition. A disciple of the father-son duo of Chokkalingam Pillai and Subbaraya Pillai, she is a recipient of several honours including Kalaimamani Award of the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Natya Kala Sarathi of Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2008, for her contributions to classical dance.
Sheema Kermani is a Pakistani classical dancer and social activist. She is the founder of Tehrik-e-Niswan Cultural Action Group. She is also an exponent of Bharatanatyam dance. Kermani is known as a renowned classical dancer, choreographer, dance guru, theatre practitioner, performer, director, producer, and TV actor based in Karachi, Pakistan. She advocates on culture, women's rights, and peace issues.
Nighat Chaudhry was born on 24 February, in Lahore, Pakistan. She moved to London with her parents when she was one year old. She is a trained Sufi & Mystique Kathak classical dancer. She started her journey from London and has been active as a professional Kathak dancer for over three decades. She studied ballet and contemporary dance. She met Nahid Siddiqui aged 14, regarded as one of the greatest Kathak dancers, and trained under her guidance. Inspired to learn the classical forms of her own culture, she abandoned ballet to understand and absorb the nuances of the style. This required her to be closer to its origins and she moved back to Pakistan.
Shirin Vajifdar was an Indian classical dancer, choreographer, instructor and critic. She was one of the first Parsis who took up Indian classical dance. A doyenne of Kathak, she was an acclaimed performer and teacher. Her choreography in the film Mayurpankh (1954) was lauded.
Louise Mary Lightfoot was an Australian architect, choreographer and dancer. She was also known as Louisa Mary Lightfoot. She is credited with contributing to the cultural life of Australia through both classical ballet and Indian classical dance.
Meenakshisundaram Pillai (1869–1964) is a classical dance guru considered as the prominent founder of Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam, Indian dance. He lived in the village of Pandanallur, in the Thanjavur district in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Nahid Siddiqui is an exponent of Kathak dance.