Life After Dada
The pall of gloom that had settled over me with Dada’s demise dissipated somewhat with the birth of our second child in 1978 – our son, Shamik. I now started on a mission of sorts in my effort to propagate Dada’s style. I also slowly found myself being inexorably drawn towards Tagore’s works. And at the twilight of my life, when I look back, I find that what I have spent working on most of my life is Tagore’s works, choreographed in Dada’s style of dance.
My fascination with Tagore had developed right from my days at the Academy, not only with dances set to Tagore’s songs, but also with Shyama, where I played my first character role in a dance drama. The ambience of Tagore’s house at Jorasanko had also bewitched me so much that I would often go and sit there even during my vacations, and be filled with a sense of peace and well-being. Then of course, as fate would have it, I joined Dada during the production of Samanya Kshati and became the Ballet Master of Dada’s troupe for his production of Prakriti Ananda.
Suchitra Mitra, the veteran Rabindra Sangeet singer whom we lost so recently, was the first person to give me a break to play the male lead roles in Tagore’s dance dramas. I played the role of Bajrasen in Shyama, Kach in Kach Debjani and Ruhitan in Tasher Desh in Rabitirtha’s productions. Although these dance dramas were directed by Sri Ramgopal Bhattacharya, I choreographed my dances in Dada’s style.
My next break in terms of propagating Dada’s style in a big way came with Shyamasree Tagore’s production of Brides of India for the Closing Ceremony of the World Table Tennis Tournament in 1975 under my sole direction. The interesting part is that I was also a part of the Opening Ceremony of the same tournament with Ruma Guhathakurta’s Calcutta Youth Choir. Sunanda, another dancer Supriya and I had opened the programme with Tagore’s song Prathamo Adi Tabo Shakti, choreographed in Dada’s style. Soon Shyamasree Tagore, who also happened to be Abanindranath Tagore’s grand daughter-in-law, approached me for a production of Shyama under my direction. I was to enact the role of Bajrasen as well. After this, there was no looking back.
POWERED BY A432 PRODUCTIONS. 2026.
Images: Private collection of Shanti Bose
Read More...
The melody and lyricism of Tagore and Dada’s style of dance were almost ‘made for each other’. Soon most of Kolkata and Bengal and productions elsewhere, knowingly or unknowingly, adopted Dada’s style of dance by way of interpreting Tagore’s works.
I have also been associated with and been an integral part of Santosh Sengupta’s Suramandir. A pioneer in popularizing Tagore’s dance dramas all over the globe, I was the dance director as well as played the male lead for all his productions of Shyama, Chandalika, Chitrangada and other productions for almost a decade.
Ruma Guhathakurta’s Calcutta Youth Choir also has a very precious place in my heart. Under Rumadi’s music direction and my dance direction, Calcutta Youth Choir won the Best Performer Award in the 1974 Youth Festival, Denmark.
I was also fortunate enough to work under the direction of Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra in Sutapa Talukdar’s presentation of Abhigyan Shakuntalam. Here too I implemented Dada’s style in my characterization of Dushyanta and won rave reviews.
I have also directed and performed, in water ballet form, Tagore’s Shyama (1969), Chitrangada (1979) and Samanya Kshati (1982) at the Indian Life Savings Society (Anderson Swimming Club), again being guided by Uday Shankar Style of Creative Dance not only while composing but even while performing.
With Sunanda, I continued to teach and undertake productions based on Uday Shankar style of Dance through our dance institution Nrityangan. Our various productions include Samanya Kshati, Life of Buddha, Shyama, Chitrangada, Chandalika, Tasher Desh, Saapmochan, Barsho O Basanto and others.
Doordarshan Kendra Kolkata has also invited me, along with my troupe Nrityangan, to present several dance dramas like Chandalika, Tasher Desh, Life of Buddha, Samanya Kshati, Parishod, Chitrangada, Shyama and Guru Pronam – a tribute to Uday Shankar through my performance of Kartikeya and a few other items like Astra Puja, Madia and others.
One of my achievements probably also lies in the fact that while working at Loreto House and other branches of Loreto, one of the most prestigious education institutes of Kolkata for over 33 years, along with Sunanda, I have been able to imbibe in generations of students the beauty of Uday Shankar Style of Creative Dance not only through the exercises of the method worked out by Dada, but also with productions like Samanya Kshati, The Great Renunciation, and Prakriti Ananda to name a few. Some of the musicians involved with these projects like Vishnu Sadhukahn and Ranjan Mazumdar had been a part of Dada’s troupe for many of his productions.
A list of all the performances I have partaken in over a career of more than half a decade would be impossible to list. However, I feel compelled to mention the ones that I have, and many others that I have not, because in all my efforts, and in each of the productions, I have not only propagated Dada’s style, but implemented it in new and different directions without losing any of the perfection of Dada’s movements.
West Bengal State Akademi of Dance Drama Music and Visual Arts, and Rabindra Bharati University, Song and Drama Division, Government of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, West Bengal State Music Academy, Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Rabindra Sadan, Kolkata, and last but not the least Sangeet Natak Akademi, have all provided me the opportunity to teach the nuances of Dada’s style of Dance.
I sincerely hope that Dada’s style is carried on with perfection, and the movements that he had created and conceived which formulate Uday Shankar Style of Creative Dance does not become a nostalgia of the past, but remains an active medium through which dancers of the future generations can give form to their creativity and imagination.
