Shanta Rao (c. 1925 – 28 December 2007) was a dancer from India. She studied and performed Kathakali, Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. She received the Padma Shri, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Kalidas Samman for Classical Dance. She was born in 1925 in Bombay (now Mumbai) and lived there and Bangalore. She died on 28 December 2007 at her home at Malleswaram, Bangalore.
Life and career
Shanta Rao was born around 1925 to Saraswat Brahmins. Rao traveled to study at Kerala Kalamandalam with a chaperone in 1939.
She made her debut in Kathakali in 1940 in Thrissur.
Rao studied Bharatanatyam from Meenakshisundaram Pillai. She made her debut in Bharatnatyam in the Music Academy of Madras in 1942. Rao studied Kuchipudi under Vempati Chinna Satyam. She formulated Bhama Natyam.
Performances
- Sangeet Natak Akademi's Swarna Jayanti Mahotsava, celebrating India's 50th year of independence, organised in Delhi in 1997.
- Ashta Mahishi, a two-hour Bhama Natyam composition recounting legends of the eight wives of Krishna.- (June 2006)
Awards and achievements
- Padma Shri by the Government of India, 1971
- Sangeet Natak Akademi - given by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, 1970
- Kalidas Samman for Classical Dance of Government of Madhya Pradesh, 1993-94
Bibliography
- Sunil Janah; Ashoke Chatterjee (1979). Dances of the Golden Hall: Photographs of the Indian classical dancer Shanta Rao. Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
References
- "Shanta Rao". Sahapedia. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
- ^ "SNA: List of Akademi Awardees". Sangeet Natak Akademi Official website. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
- ^ "Kalidas Award Holders (Classical Dance)". Department of Culture, Government of Madhya Pradesh. Archived from the original on 9 April 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
- Selma Jeanne Cohen; Dance Perspectives Foundation (1998). International encyclopedia of dance: a project of Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512309-8.
- Dr. Sunil Kothari (16 May 2008). "Remembering the one and only Shanta Rao". Narthaki. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
- ^ "The Sunil Kothari Column - Remembering the one and only Shanta Rao - Dr. Sunil Kothari". narthaki.com. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- Kothari, Sunil (17 June 2019). "Paucity of archival material threatens legacy of Kathakali dancer Shanta Rao". The Asian Age. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- ^ "676 Ashoke Chatterjee, A perfect stillness: the art of Shanta Rao". www.india-seminar.com. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- Interview with Shanta Rao, 25 March 2021, retrieved 28 March 2021
- "Shanta Rao". Sahapedia. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- "Padma Awards Directory (1954–2013)" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
- Indian female classical dancers
- 1930 births
- 2007 deaths
- Artists from Mangalore
- Bharatanatyam exponents
- Artists from Bengaluru
- Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
- Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
- Kuchipudi exponents
- Kathakali exponents
- Dancers from Karnataka
- 20th-century Indian dancers
- 20th-century Indian women artists
- Women artists from Karnataka