Tanushree Shankar (born 16 March 1956) is an Indian dancer and choreographer. She is based in

Kolkata, India Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commerci ...

. She was a leading dancer of the Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts in the 1970s and 1980s. She also acted in various films, like The Namesake. Tanushree Shankar now leads the Tanushree Shankar Dance Company. She has evolved her own modern idiom by marrying traditional

Indian dance Dance in India comprises numerous styles of dances, generally classified as classical or folk. As with other aspects of Indian culture, different forms of dances originated in different parts of India, developed according to the local tradi ...

s with modern western ballet expressions. She has been inspired by her lineage as much by the folk and regional dance forms of India. She has drawn extensively from rich local Indian traditions such as the "

Thang-ta Huyen langlon is an Indian martial art from Manipur. In the Meitei language, means war while or can mean net, knowledge or art. consists of two main components: thang-ta (armed combat) and sarit sarak (unarmed fighting). The primary weapons ...

" ( Manipuri

Sword dance Sword dances are recorded throughout world history. There are various traditions of solo and mock-battle (Pyrrhic) sword dances from Africa, Asia and Europe. General types of sword dance include: *solo dancers around swords – such as t ...

). She travels with her troupe extensively around the world. Her last notable productions include ''Uttaran'' (Upliftment of the soul) and ''Chirantan'' (The eternal) which is based on

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

's music.

Family

Tanusree Shankar was born in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, her father was a doctor in

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

. Her husband, the late Ananda Shankar, was a music composer who experimented with

fusion music A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from ''musical form'' and musical style, although in practice these terms are some ...

. He was the son of dancers Pandit

Uday Shankar Uday Shankar (8 December 1900 – 26 September 1977) was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian cl ...

and Amala Shankar and the nephew of the

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...

maestro

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North In ...

. she has a daughter Sreenanda Shankar.

Awards

* Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, 2011

References

External links

Tanusree Shankar Dance Company
accessed 23 September 2007 1956 births Living people Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Indian women choreographers Indian choreographers Indian female martial artists Indian female dancers Artists from Kolkata Indian contemporary dancers Dancers from West Bengal 20th-century Indian dancers 20th-century Indian women artists Women artists from West Bengal {{India-martialart-bio-stub