100 Glorious Years of The Dance Legend, Amala Shankar
Amala Shankar, the ever graceful, legendary Indian danseuse, wife of dance maestro Uday Shankar, mother of Mamata and Ananda Shankar, steps onto her 100th year today. When I met her last year on the eve of herbirthday, she was still thinking about teaching dance, planning meetings for new works and productions with her students, still hopeful and dreaming about dance.
The legendary dancer was born on June 27 1919 in Jessore in undivided Bengal, and was introduced to dance at a very young age by the Shankar family whom she met in France. Having been trained under Uday Shankar, she began to perform as his dance partner, performed in the main roles in his dance productions, and also later got married to him.
Amala Shankar became a great practitioner of experimental and modern Indian dance.
Along with several other prestigious recognitions and awards, she was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 1991.
In 1971, my entire family had to travel to Kolkata as refugees. After liberation, my parents came back to Bangladesh to take care of the damages to our home in Chittagong. During thenI stayed back with my siblings, and one day went to see the dance classes at Uday Shankar India Culture Centre in Kolkata with my cousin, who was a student there. My entire notion on dance changed that day as I watched Smt. Amala Shankar dance. It was then that I decided that I would only dance for the rest of my life. She ignited the passion for dance in me. I got the chance of getting admission in "Uday Shankar India Culture Centre". It was there that my whole perception of dance transformed; dance was not just getting ready with make-up, costume and going on stage to perform.It was so much more!
I have had the luck of learning dance from some of the great and legendary dance maestros. However, it was Amala Shankar and her dance that influenced my decision to take up dance as my life's primary goal. Whatever I am, whatever I do today is all due to her inspiration that I got from her at such a young age.
On this day, the beginning of the celebrations of her birth centenary, I pray for her to continue tobe in good health, so that she keeps on inspiring us and the generations to come for many more years.
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