Uday Shankar India 1978

Uday Shankar was an internationally acclaimed Indian classical dancer. While touring the West along with his troupe in the 1930s, he fluxed western dancing techniques to Indian ones that made his art hugely popular among both Indian and the western audiences. 

Uday Shankar Born at the historic Udaipur city of Rajasthan to Bengali parents, *Uday Shankar was the brother of the renowned musician Ravi Shankar*.

 Uday Shankar   was also a choreographer *Besides an adept classical dancer, Uday Shankar also had the brilliance of a painter within*. To develop his skills further, he was sent to the J. J. School of the Arts in Bombay. In 1920, Uday Shankar went to England to study painting at the Royal College of Art, London. There,  he made ballets themed on the life history of Radha-Krishna, and Hindu marriages

Uday Shankar later toured the entire West along with his troupe in the 1930s. His fluxing of western dancing techniques with Indian ones made his art hugely popular among both Indian and the western audiences. So while he popularised Indian dance in the west, his brother Ravi did the same to Indian instrumental music.

 An important point in the life history of Uday Shankar was when he married Amala Shankar. Together, the duo gave birth to son Ananda Shankar and daughter Mamata Shankar. While Ananda Shankar chose to become a musician after training with Dr Lalmani Misra, Mamata became a noted classical dancer and actress, who got opportunity to work in movies made by Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. Uday Shankar too made a movie themed on dance called Kalpana. Later Uday Shankar set up a dance center at Almora at the foothills of the Himalayas and invited here Shankaran Nambudirei for Kathakali, Kandappa Pillai for Bharatanatyam, Amobi Singh for Manipuri and Ustad Allauddin Khan for music. In order to recognize his contribution to the field of art and culture,

*The Government of India awarded Uday with the coveted Padma Vibhushan*. He was also presented the Desikottama by the prestigious Visvabharati University Uday Shankar's dancing style was not bound by any particular style as he freely amalgated the nuances of various Indian folk dances and other classical forms like Manipuri, Kathakali and so on to come up with his own unique style. What he had really imbibed from the west was presentation, duration and discipline. The mixing, however, up was so refined that it was often difficult to distinguish one style from another

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

*He can be called one of the great cultural ambassadors of our age*. He Last  his  breath  on 26.09.1977

After his death in 1977, Amala Shankar took over the Kolkata school, which continues to offer training in folk and classical dance, improvisation, costume design, etc. She still working  on promotion  of the  dance

Issued  Date : 26.09.1978
Denomination : 25 Paisa