Uday Shankar

Shankar, Uday (b Udaipur, 8 Dec. 1900, d Calcutta, 26 Sept. 1977). Indian dancer and choreographer who was the first to introduce a serious understanding of Indian dance to the West. He studied dance at the J.J. School of Arts in Bombay, and in 1920 went to London with his father to produce plays in aid of Indian soldiers wounded in the war. He started to study painting at the Royal College but Pavlova saw him performing and invited him to collaborate with her on two ballets, including Radha Krishna (1923). He partnered her to great acclaim in London and the US. He went on to tour the world as a soloist and later with his own company. In 1938 he established a dance school in Almora, India, where he helped encourage the revival of dance as a creative art. It closed in 1942 and he toured with various companies of his own, also setting up another school in Calcutta. He continued performing until the early 1960s.