There are two classes of Bauls: ascetic Bauls who reject family life and Bauls who live with their families. Ascetic Bauls renounce family life and society and survive on alms. They have no fixed dwelling place, but move from one akhda to another. Bangladeshian men wear white lungis and long, white tunics; women wear white saris. They carry jholas, shoulder bags for alms. They do not beget or rear children. They are treated as jyante mara. Women dedicated to the service of ascetics, are known as sevadasis "service slaves". A male Baul can have one sevadasi, who is associated with him in the act of devotion. Until 1976 the district of Kushtia had 252 ascetic Bauls. In 1982-83 the number rose to 905; in 2000, they numbered about 5000.[citation needed]
Bauls use a number of musical instruments: the most common is the ektara, a one-stringed "plucked drum" drone instrument, carved from the epicarp of a gourd, and made of bamboo and goatskin. Others include the dotara, a long-necked fretless lute (while the name literally means "two stringed" it usually has four metal strings) made of the wood of a jackfruit or neem tree; besides khamak, one-headed drum with a string attached to it which is plucked. The only difference from ektara is that no bamboo is used to stretch the string, which is held by one hand, while being plucked by another.[18] Drums like the duggi, a small hand-held earthen drum, and dhol and khol; small cymbals called khartal and manjira, and the bamboo flute are also used. Ghungur and nupur are anklets with bells that ring while the person wearing them dances.
Bengali Mad About Dance
In 1918, at the age of eighteen, he was sent to Mumbai to train at the J. J. School of Art and then to Gandharva Mahavidyalaya.[10] By now, Shyam Shankar had resigned his post in Jhalawar and moved to London. Here he married an English woman and practised law, before becoming an amateur impresario, introducing Indian dance and music to Britain. Subsequently, Uday joined his father in London, and on 23 August 1920, joined the Royal College of Art, London to study painting under Sir William Rothenstein. He danced at a few charity performances that his father had organized in London, and on one such occasion, noted Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova happened to be present. This was to have a lasting impact on his career.[5]
Uday Shankar did not have any formal training in any of the Indian classical dance forms. Nevertheless, his presentations were creative.[11] From a young age, he had been exposed to both Indian classical dance and folk dance, as well as to ballet during his stay in Europe. 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, after studying the Rajput painting and Mughal painting styles at the British Museum. Further, during his stay in Britain, he came across several performing artists, 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 transform Indian dance into a contemporary form. The turning point came with his first meetings 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, including one based on the Ajanta Caves frescoes, which was performed across the United States.[12] In time his style of dance came to be known as 'Hi-dance', though later he called it 'Creative dance'.[13]
Shankar returned to India in 1927, along with a French pianist, Simon Barbiere, who was now his disciple and dance partner, and a Swiss sculptress, Alice Boner, 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 return to Paris in 1931, he founded Europe's first Indian dance company, along with Alice Boner, who by now had become one of his disciples. Together 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 were held on 3 March 1931, at the Champs-Elysees Theatre in Paris, which was to become his base as he toured through Europe.[14]
His adaptation of European theatrical techniques to Indian dance made his art hugely popular both in India and abroad, and he is rightly credited for ushering in a new era for traditional Indian temple dances, which until then had been known for their strict interpretations, and which were also going through their own revival. Meanwhile, his brother Ravi Shankar was helping to popularise Indian classical music in the outside world.
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, Devon for a six-month residency, with his troupe and lead dancer, Simkie. Also present there were Michel Chekhov, nephew of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, the German modern dancer-choreographer, Kurt Jooss and another German Rudolf Laban, who had invented a system of dance notation. This experience only added more exuberance to his expressionist dance.[18]
Uday Shankar settled in Ballygunge, Kolkata in 1960, where the "Uday Shankar Center for Dance" was opened in 1965. In 1962, he was awarded the highest award of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for his lifetime contribution to Indian dance.
Uday is the elder brother of Ravi Shankar. He married his dance partner, Amala Shankar, and together they had a son, Ananda Shankar, born in 1942, and a daughter, Mamata Shankar, born in 1955. Ananda Shankar became a musician and composer who trained with Dr. Lalmani Misra rather than with his uncle, Ravi Shankar, and in time became known for his fusion music, encompassing both European and Indian music styles. Mamata Shankar, a dancer like her parents, became a noted actress, working in films by Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. She also runs the 'Udayan Dance Company' in Kolkata, and travels extensively through the world.[21]
Ananda Shankar's wife, Tanushree Shankar, continues to teach and perform his style of Indian modern dance, through the 'Tanushree Shankar Dance Company', also based in the city.[22] Uday Shankar's legacy is also being carried forward by his daughter Mamata Shankar through her institution 'Udayan Kala Kendra'. In March 2017, Mamata Shankar made a claim[23] through social media, which stated that her school is "the one and only dance institution in the world to teach the authentic Uday Shankar style of dance".[24][25] This claim was publicly refuted by Ananda Shankar's daughter, Sreenanda Shankar, who stated, "Uday Shankar belongs to the world and lots of people are teaching it beautifully and teaching it right".[26] Years after his school at Almora was disbanded, his followers and associates continued to spread his innovative style of dancing and his aesthetic through their own work. Many went on to form their own companies, thus creating an everlasting legacy of his immense body of work and influence on the dancers of his generation. Among them is Shanti Bardhan, who has created Ramayana ballets presentations using human beings performing like puppets, while also introducing the Panchatantra tales into dances by creating movements of birds and the animals. Onkar Mullick, who was one of his main dancers in the troupe. Guru Dutt, who attended his school, went on to become one of India's finest film directors. Another student, Lakshmi Shankar, later changed careers and became a noted classical singer, who later married Rajendra Shankar, the younger brother of Uday Shankar. Zohra Sehgal made a career for herself in stage, television, and the cinema both in India and in Britain.[18] Satyavati later danced with Ram Gopal at The Royal Festival Hall in London and at the Edinburgh festival in 1956. She taught Indian dance to thousands of young girls in Bombay through her classes in several of the convent schools in the city during a teaching career that spanned more than four decades.
In December 1983, his younger brother, sitar player Ravi Shankar organised a four-day festival, Uday-Ustav Festival in New Delhi, marking the 60th anniversary of his professional debut in 1923, highlighted by performances by his disciples, films, an exhibition and orchestral music composed and orchestrated by Ravi Shankar himself.[3] The centenary celebrations of his birth were formally launched at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 26 April 2001, where dancers, choreographers and scholars from all over the world assembled to pay homage to Uday Shankar.[14]In the Tollygunge area of south Kolkata, the Golf Club road has been renamed to Uday Shankar Sarani.[27]
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