Shanta Rao (c. 1925 – 28 December 2007) was a notable dancer from

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. She studied and performed

Kathakali Kathakali ( ml, കഥകളി) is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor-dancers. It is native to the M ...

Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of ...

and

Kuchipudi Kuchipudi () ( Telugu: ) 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 Sa ...

. She was a recipient of the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IPA: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognit ...

and

Kalidas Samman The Kalidas Samman ( hi, कालिदास सम्मान) is an arts award presented annually by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in India. The award is named after Kālidāsa, a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer of ancient India. The ...

for Classical Dance. She was born in 1925 in Bombay, and lived in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

and

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. She hailed from Mangalore. She died on 28 December 2007 at her home at

Malleswaram Malleshwara (also referred as Malleshwaram) is a northwest neighborhood and one of the zones of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike in Bengaluru, India. It was planned in 1889 after the great plague of 1898, developed as a suburb in 1892 and ...

, Bangalore.

Life and career

Shanta Rao was born around 1925 to

Saraswat Brahmin The Saraswat Brahmins are Hindu Brahmins, who are spread over widely separated regions spanning from Kashmir in North India to Konkan in West India to Kanara (coastal region of Karnataka) and Kerala in South India. The word ''Saraswat'' is der ...

s, who were an honourable family in Bombay. She wished to pursue Kathakali but faced opposition at an early age. Eventually, she went on to develop a passion for classical traditions away from an urban setup. She rejected the ideology of mainstream schooling to pursue dance. Rao traveled to Kerala Kalamandalam with a chaperone, G. Venkatachalam, in the year 1939. The proprietor of Kerala Kalamandalam was a poet named Vallathol Narayan Menon. P. Ravunni Menon, a Guru from

Kalamandalam Kerala Kalamandalam, deemed to be University of Art and Culture by the Government of India, is a major center for learning Indian performing arts, especially those that developed in the Southern states of India, with the special emphasis on ...

, was taken by surprise at the sight of a young girl wanting to participate in a masculine art form like Kathakali. Shanta Rao was one of the first female pioneers of Kathakali who challenged the traditional norms of classical dance. In the Kalamandalam, Shanta had the opportunity to meet the last great Guru of Mohini Attam, Krishna Panikkar, who eventually endowed his legacy of movements and music. She made her debut in Kathakali in 1940 in front of an audience of Namboodiris and Kathakali experts in Thrissur. Shanta Rao learnt Bharatanatyam from Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai. She made her debut in Bharatnatyam in the Music Academy of Madras in 1942. Rao explored the dance form Kuchipudi under Vempati Chinna Satyam when she was believed to be in her 50s. She formulated Bhama Natyam, inspired and influenced by Venkatachalapathi Sastri, who introduced her to Bhamasutram rituals. Sastri entrusted and blessed her with the sanctity of the art.

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 Lord Krishna.- (June 2006)

Awards and achievements

by the Government of India, 1971 *

Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in English) is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. History It was set up by the Indian education ministry on 31 May 1952 and ...

- given by

, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, 1970 * Kalidas Samman for Classical Dance of

Government of Madhya Pradesh Government of Madhya Pradesh also known as the State Government of Madhya Pradesh, or locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and its 52 districts. It consists of an executive, ...

, 1993-94

Bibliography

References

Indian female classical dancers Performers of Indian classical dance 1930 births 2007 deaths Artists from Mangalore Bharatanatyam exponents Artists from Bangalore Articles created or expanded during Women's History Month (India) - 2014 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 {{dance-bio-stub