Dona Ganguly ( Roy; born 22 August 1976) is an Indian

Odissi ''Odissi'' (''ଓଡ଼ିଶୀ'') also referred to as ''Orissi'' in old literature, oldest surviving classical dance of India, is a major ancient Indian classical dance that originated in the Hindu temple, temples of Odisha – an eastern ...

dancer. She took her dancing lessons from guru

Kelucharan Mohapatra Kelucharan Mohapatra (8 January 1926 – 7 April 2004) was a legendary Indian classical dancer, guru, and exponent of Odissi dance, who is credited with the revival and popularizing of this classical dance form in the 20th century. He is ...

. She has a dance troupe ''Diksha Manjari''. In 1997 she eloped with and married her childhood friend and later Indian cricketer and skipper

Sourav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), also known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali language, Bengali), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer. He is popularly called the ...

, 35th president of

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...

. The couple has a daughter Sana (born 2001).

Personal life

Dona Ganguly was born on 22 August 1976 in an affluent business family in

Behala Behala is a locality of South West Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Behala is a part of Kolkata Municipal Corporation area. It is broadly spread across Ward Numbers: 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. Her parents were Sanjeev Roy (father) and Swapna Roy (mother). She was a student of Loreto Convent School. She eloped with her childhood friend

because their families were sworn enemies at that time. Later their families accepted the marriage and a formal wedding took place in February 1997. The couple have a daughter Sana Ganguly. On 5 October 2022, she was infected with mosquito-borne disease

Chikungunya Chikungunya is an infection caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV). The disease was first identified in 1952 in Tanzania and named based on the Kimakonde words for "to become contorted". Chikungunya has become a global health concern due to ...

and was admitted to Woodlands Hospital,

Dancing career

Dona Ganguly started learning dance from

Amala Shankar Amala Shankar (''née'' Nandy, 27 June 1919 – 24 July 2020) was an Indian dancer. She was the wife of dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar and mother of musician Ananda Shankar and dancer Mamata Shankar (later she became an actress) and si ...

when she was only 3 years old. Later she shifted to

under the guidance of Guru Giridhari Nayek. Dona considers the most significant development took place when she met

and started taking dancing lessons from him. At early stage of her career, in different programs, Mohapatra accompanied her many times with

Pakhavaj The ''pakhavaj'' is a barrel-shaped, two-headed drum, originating from the Indian subcontinent, kendang of Maritime Southeast Asia and other South Asian double-headed drums. Its older forms were made with clay. It is the percussion instrumen ...

Performances

Dover Lane Music Conference The Dover Lane Music Conference is an annual Indian classical music festival held in the month of January at Nazrul Mancha, an outdoor auditorium in south Kolkata. The Dover Lane Music Conference is an all night concert attended by visitors ...

* Konarak Festival, Konarak * River Festival,

* Uday Shankar Dance Festival,

* Barak Utsov, Silchar,

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

* Dakshin Mukambi National Festival, Kottayam,

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

* Baba Alauddin Khan Sangeet Samaraho (Maihar), M.P. *

Bali Yatra Bāli Jātrā, () , is the major Boita Bandana festival held at Cuttack on Kartik Purnima and lasts for 7 days or more, i.e. usually until Prathamastami. It is considered to be one of Asia's largest open trade fair. The festival is held in Odisha ...

Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka in Odia language, Odia ), is the former capital, deputy capital and the 2nd largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. It is also the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised f ...

* Kumar Utsov,

Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar () is the capital and the largest city of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Odisha. It is located in the Khordha district. The suburban region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Chakra ...

* Bharat Bhavan,

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

* Haridas Samaraho, Brindavhan * Samudra Maha Utsov,

Puri Puri, also known as Jagannath Puri, () is a coastal city and a Nagar Palika, municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state ca ...

* Beach Festival,

Digha Digha (), is a seaside resort town in the state of West Bengal, India. It lies in Purba Medinipur district and at the northern end of the Bay of Bengal. The town has a low gradient with a shallow sand beach. It is a popular sea resort in India ...

* Haldia Utsov,

Haldia Haldia () is an industrial port city in Purba Medinipur district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It has a major river port and industrial belt located approximately southwest of Kolkata near the mouth of the Hooghly River, one of the d ...

* Sankat Mochan Festival Varanasi * Ganga Maha Utsov, Varanasi * Antiquity Festival,

* Muktashwar Festival,

* Mirtunjay Utsov, Varanasi * Bhojpur Festival, Bhopal * Kalidas Samoraho, Ujjain * Taj Mohotsav, Agra *

World Expo A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a perio ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, 2010 * Chaitrakut Mohotsav, Chitrakut * Narmada Mohotsav, Jabalpur

Diksha Manjari

Dona Ganguly has a dance school named ''Diksha Manjari''. This institution was inaugurated by

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar (; born Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. He ...

. It has capacity of more than 2000 students. Other than dancing, this institution has other departments like

Yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

Drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

Karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

and

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

. In October 2012, Dona Ganguly choreographed

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

's ''Shapmochan'' which she called a sombre dance drama.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ganguly, Dona Artists from Kolkata Odissi exponents Living people 1977 births Bengali women artists Indian female classical dancers Dancers from West Bengal 20th-century Indian women artists 20th-century Indian dancers Women artists from West Bengal