Menaka Thakkar (March 3, 1942 - February 5, 2022) was an

Indo-Canadian Indian Canadians are Canadians who have ancestry from India. The term ''East Indian'' is sometimes used to avoid confusion with Indigenous groups. Categorically, Indian Canadians comprise a subgroup of South Asian Canadians which is a furthe ...

dancer, choreographer, and teacher who specialized in

Indian classical dance Indian classical dance, or ''Shastriya Nritya'', is an umbrella term for different regionally-specific Indian classical dance traditions, rooted in predominantly Hindu musical theatre performance,, Quote: All of the dances considered to be part ...

. Based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Thakkar taught and performed across Canada and around the world. She was awarded Canada's

Governor General's Performing Arts Award The Governor General's Performing Arts Awards are an annual Canadian award, presented to honour distinguished achievements in Canadian performing arts and culture. Administered by the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation in associ ...

for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2013. In 2019 she was inducted into Dance Collection Danse's Dance Hall of Fame.

Early life and education

Thakkar was born in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, India, on March 3, 1942. In Mumbai,

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

, and

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 ...

, she completed training in Indian classical dance (including

Bharatanatyam ''Bharatanatyam'' is a Indian classical dance form that came from Tamil Nadu, India. It is a classical dance form recognized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas of Hinduism and Jainism.< ...

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 ...

, and

Kuchipudi ''Kuchipudi'' ( ) is one of the eight major Indian classical dances. It originates from a village named Kuchipudi in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with its roots in the ancient Hindu Sanskrit ...

styles). She earned an undergraduate degree in visual arts in 1963. Thakkar performed as a soloist in India. She travelled to Canada in 1972 to visit her brother and to perform. She decided to settle in the country the following year, joining her brother Rasesh Thakkar and their sister in Toronto.

Career

Teaching

Thakkar founded Nrtyakala: The Canadian Academy of Indian Dance in Toronto in 1974. For a decade, she taught dance intensives across Canada. She also taught a course in Indian dance as an adjunct professor at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

in Toronto. Thakkar was credited in the ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...

'' for "singlehandedly craft nga whole generation of South Asian dancers in Canada".

Performance and choreography

In 1984, Thakkar founded the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, based in Toronto. As a dancer and choreographer, she has toured North America and internationally. One early piece, a solo interpretation of the poem ''

Gita Govinda The ''Gita Govinda'' (; IAST: ''gītagovindam'') is a work composed by the 12th-century Hindu poet, Jayadeva. It describes the relationship between Krishna, Radha and ''gopis'' (female cow herders) of Vrindavan. The ''Gita Govinda'' is organiz ...

'', earned positive critical reviews in Canadian media when it debuted in the 1970s. She performed the piece for over 25 years. She has also experimented with novel interpretations of Indian dance traditional styles. For ''East Meets West'', she collaborated with choreographer

Robert Desrosiers Robert Guy Desrosiers (born October 10, 1953) is a Canadian dancer and choreographer. After a brief dance career, he founded the Desrosiers Dance Theatre and choreographed surreal and theatrical dances. After the company’s disbandment, he purs ...

to blend traditional Indian and Western dance styles.

Awards and honours

Thakkar earned an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from York University in 1993. In 2012, Thakkar won the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to ...

Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts. In 2013, she was awarded the

for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in Dance.

Death

She died on February 5, 2022 in Toronto of complications from Alzheimer's disease. Her death occurred 17 days after that of her older brother Rasesh Thakkar, and the

Toronto Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it falls ...

published a joint obituary for the two of them.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thakkar, Menaka Living people 1942 births Indian emigrants to Canada Indian dance teachers 20th-century Canadian dancers 20th-century Indian dancers Canadian choreographers Entertainers from Mumbai Dancers from Toronto Canadian women choreographers Governor General's Award winners