Uday Shankar - Career

Career

Uday Shankar didn't have any formal training in any of the Indian classical dance forms, his presentations were creative. Though from a young age, he was exposed to both Indian classical and folk dances, as he was to ballet, during his stay in Europe, much impressed he decided to bring elements of both the styles together to create a new dance, which he called hi-dance. He went on to translate classical Indian dance forms and their iconography to dance movements, which he studied the Rajput painting and Mughal painting styles at the British Museum. Further during his stay in Britain, he came across several performing artistes, subsequently when he left for Rome on the 'Prix de Rome' scholarship of French Government, for advanced studies in art.

Soon his interaction with such artists grew and so did the idea to Indian dance in a contemporary form. The turning point came his way as a meeting with legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. She was looking for artists to collaborate on India based themes. This led to the creation of ballets based on Hindu themes, 'Radha-Krishna', a duet with Anna, and 'Hindu Wedding', for inclusion in her production, 'Oriental Impressions'. The ballet was presented at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London. Later he continued to conceive and choreograph ballets, like one based on Ajanta Caves frescoes, and performed across USA, along with her, and in time his style of dance came to be known as 'hi dance' in those days, though later he called it 'Creative dance '.

He worked with Anna for one and a half years, before starting out on his own in Paris.

Shankar returned to India, in 1927, along with by a French pianist, Simon Barbiere, who was now his disciple and dance partner, and a Swiss sculptres nl:Alice Boners, Alice Bonner, who wanted to study Indian art history. He was welcomed by Rabindranath Tagore himself, who also persuaded him to open a performing arts school in India.

On his returned to Paris in 1931, he founded Europe's first Indian dance company, along with Swiss sculptress Alice Boner, a former disciple. There, along with musicians Vishnu Dass Shirali and Timir Baran, he created a new template for music to accompany his newly devised movements. His first series of dance performances was held on March 3, 1931, at the Champs-Elysees Theatre in Paris, which was to become his base as he toured through Europe and also felicitated his interaction with French dancers and choreographer.

Soon he embarked on seven-year tour through the western world—Europe and America, along with his own troupe, titled - 'Uday Shankar and his Hindu Ballet', under the ageis of impresario Sol Hurok and Celebrity Series of Boston of impresario, Aaron Richmond. He performed in United States for the first time, in January 1933, along with his dance partner Simkie, a French dancer, in New York City; as part of the visit, a reception was held at the Grand Central Art Galleries. After, Shankar and his troupe set out on an 84-city tour throughout the country.

His adaptation of western theatrical techniques to Indian dance made his art hugely popular both in India and the West, and he rightly credited for ushering in an era of renaissance into traditional Indian temple dances, till now known for their strict interpretations, and which were also going through their own revival, while his brother Ravi Shankar helped popularize Indian classical music in the West.

In 1936, he was invited by Leonard Knight Elmhirst, who had earlier assisted Rabindranath Tagore in building Sriniketan, close to Shanti Niketan, to visit Dartington Hall, Totnes, Doven for a six-month residency, with his troupe and lead dancer, Simkie. Also present there, in those days where Michel Chekhov, nephew of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, the German modern dancer-choreographer, Kurt Jooss and another German Rudolf Laban who invented the dance notation, this experience only added more exuberance to his expressionist dance.

In 1938, he made India his base, and established 'Uday Shankar India Cultural Centre', at Simtola, 3 km from Almora, in Uttarakhand Himalayas, and invited Sankaran Namboodri for Kathakali, Kandappa Pillai for Bharatanatyam, Ambi Singh for Manipuri and Ustad Allauddin Khan for music. Soon, he had battery of artists and dancers including, Guru Dutt, Shanti Bardhan, Simkie, Amala, Satyavati, Narendra Sharma, Ruma Guha Thakurta, Prabhat Ganguly, Zohra Sehgal, Uzra, Lakshmi Shankar, Shanta Gandhi; his own brothers Rajendra, Denbendra and Ravi also joined him as students. The centre however closed after four years of existence in 1942, due to paucity of funds. As his students dispersed, he regrouped his energies and headed South, where he made his only film, Kalpana (Imagination) in 1948, based on his dance, in which both he and his wife, Amala Shankar danced, the film was produced and shot at Gemini Studios, Madras.

Uday Shankar settled in Ballygunge, Kolkata in 1960, where the "Uday Shankar Center for Dance" was later opened in 1965. In 1962 he was awarded, the highest award of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime contribution to Indian dance