Intro Music Credit: Bansure Raga by Doug Maxwell
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
(0:01:49) Current Trends in Kathak Research for Academia
(0:09:05) How Kathak has picked up movements from other dance forms
(0:10:47) The case for the Bengal Gharana
(0:23:16) spreading awareness on the Bengal Gharana
(0:25:23) How you choose a Taal
(0:30:59) Portrayal of Durga
(0:40:03) How poeple were affected by the portrayal
(0:44:31) How do you teach Abhinaya to your students
(0:48:22) The importance of formal education for a career in dance
(0:53:46) The 5 types of Student Interactions Amita di has
(1:08:27) How to make Kathak more accessible, and build an audience
EPISODE LINKS
Amita Dutt | Facebook
BIO
Amita Dutt, Uday Shankar Professor of Dance at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, has been serving the world of Kathak for more than three decades.
Groomed in the strictest classical traditions under Pdt. Birju Maharaj, Prof. Bela Arnab, Pdt. Vijay Shankar and other leading maestros of the premier Kathak gharanas, Amita dances with a hypnotic force and subtle sensitivity combining rhythmic virtuosity with delicate expressiveness, commendable, ‘taiyaari’ with mastery in ‘abhinayanga’. In her art we find a successful blend of tradition and talent, environmental totality as well as breathtaking dynamism. Her innovative, analytic mind has also constantly encouraged her to experiment with new ideas - thus expanding the boundaries of Kathak.
Having her roots in Calcutta, Amita has performed far and wide across three continents. Among her innumerable dance recitals in prestigious dance and music festivals, mention may be made of the Khajuraho Dance Festival, the Konark Festival, Utsav Mahakaleshwar, Rajgir Mahotsav, the Biswa Banga Millennium Festival, the First South Asian Festival of SAARC Countries, the India Festival in USSR, the American Dance Festival, Uday Shankar Festival, Sarat Chandrika Festival, North American Bengali Conference, Nritya Nitya Utsav, the Young Choreographers Festival, Nir Mahal Tourism Festival, Bishnupur Tourism Festival, the India Festival at Singapore entitled Incredible India @ 60, China Kunming International Culture and Tourism Festival and many more.
During the Autumn Festival of 1990 at Darjeeling, when the President of India, Sri R. Venkataraman, came as the Chief Guest, the Governor of West Bengal Prof. Nurul Hassan invited Amita to present her traditional dance and choreographic composition Durga. She also performed for the official government function for the Golden Jubilee of Indian Independence at Patna (1997).
During the visit of the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe to Kolkata, Amita performed in the lead with her University troupe in her own choreographic creations on Tagore’s songs. She has also popularized her dance by performing at academic conferences and institutions.
The Governor of Bengal Sri Narayanan invited her to present her dance before the King of Bhutan HM Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk at the Raj Bhavan Kolkata on October 5, 2010.
In addition to giving solo recitals, Amita has been experimenting with new choreographic patterns blending pure Kathak movements with popular songs and innovative themes and has staged a number of very successful choreographic productions including Durga, Chitra Jhankar, Nazrul nana Chande, Biswa Beena Robey, Bhanusingher Padavali, Geetanjali, East West Encounter, Nrityanajali, Joyodhwani, Amrapali, E ki Madhura Chanda, Swadesh, Mother, Celebrating Light, Dash Avatar, Celebrating Light, Varsha and Basant-Bahar.
She has given three recitals for the National Programme of Dance on Doordarshan. Her performances have also been telecast over various channels innumerable times both in India and abroad including USA, Germany, Hungary and the former USSR. Her interviews over the radio and the television in various parts of the world have spread the message of Kathak far and wide.
Besides being an excellent dancer Amita is also a brilliant student of English Literature and a Gold Medalist of the Calcutta University.
Her academic background has helped her to popularize her dance form through her prolific publications in major books and journals such as Bhakti in Indian Classical Dances (Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad), Desh Binodon 1987 (Special Issue on Dance), The Statesman Festival Number 1990, Special Independence Golden Jubilee Issue of Desh and Dance Specials of Nandan. Papers on major aspects of dance written by her have been published in various departmental Journals of Rabindra Bharati University and Gauhati University and in Rabindra Bharati University Convocation Volumes 2005 and 2006. Amita’s Kathak Mahotsav (monograph) was published by Kathak Kendra, New Delhi and she is a regular contributor to the dance sections of The Statesman, Aajkaal and Bartamaan and has written for The Hindustan Times, Sananda, Pratidin, Business Economics, Dainik Statesman, West Bengal and Paribartan. She is a regular columnist for Maashik Basumati with a special page – Prantik - assigned to her for each issue. She has written papers for innumerable journals of major Universities.
Her conference paper - The Resurgence of Indian Classical Dance in the Twentieth Century: Colonial Inheritance or Indigenous Self Fashioning? - presented at an international seminar of the Department of English, Calcutta University, has been published in the volume ‘Colonial and Post Colonial Perspectives: Context, Text, Intertext’. Edited by Krishna Sen & Tapati Gupta. (Published by Das Gupta and Co. Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata. 2007.) Her article Bhakti in Indian Dance features in the volume ‘Religion and Art’ edited by J.K.Sadani and published by Bharatiya Sahitya Samsad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. 2007.
Her contributions in cultural encyclopedias include ‘Some Indian Dance Forms: Kathaka, Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi’ in Aesthetic Theories and Forms in Indian Tradition Vol. VI Part I (Ed.) Kapila Vatsayan & D.P.Chattopadhyaya - A Project of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture, Centre for Studies in Civilization, New Delhi, 2009 and three sections: ‘Kathak Dance: Origin and Variations of Gharana’, ‘Technique of Kathak Dance’ and ‘Hasta Mudras in Indian Dance’ in Vol. VI Performing Arts in Indian Culture: Encyclopaedic Survey in Eight Volumes edited by Jaikishandas Sadani, Bharatiya Vidya Mandir, Jaipur & Kolkata, 2008.
Amita’s moving deliberations in seminars and conferences all over the world in academic conferences and other forums have helped to spread the message of her dance. The Tagore Festival at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA featured Amita as the Key-note Speaker (Tagore on Education) as well as the star performer (2004). The Peking University, Beijing, China invited her to perform on Tagore in their conference on “Understanding Tagore” (2010).
A dedicated teacher, Amita’s students include National and State Scholarship Awardees, University Gold Medalists and successful performers. Amita has been the research advisor of many research scholars including Fulbright scholars. As Artistic Director of Ananda Chandrika, an organization (with a Government Partnership) for research and productions on dance, Amita has choreographed and presented many innovative dance programs and documented many dance productions.
Amita has served as Judge and Member of the Jury in important national events such as National Kala Utsav organized by the NCERT, Ministry of Human Resource Development, in National competitions organized by the Ministry of Culture and Pdt. Birju Maharaj ji’s Kalashram and in state level competitions organized by the Ministries of Information & Culture and Sports & Youth Affairs, WB.
In an attempt to popularize and make available authentic training of Kathak all over the world, Amita has embarked on a program of teaching through the television and the web. She has been the Resource person for 36 episodes on Kathak covering the entire Bachelor of Performing Arts Foundation Course in Kathak as prescribed by the University Grants Commission and produced by the Educational Multi Media Research Centre, Kolkata, for the University Grants Commission - Consortium for Education Communication scheme. This project is still continuing with more episodes under preparation for the Bachelor of Performing Arts 2nd Year, 3rd Year and 4th Year Courses. These courses are available as CDs from the UGC-CEC office at Delhi and are telecast often on the Indian television Doordarshan National and UGC network and on the EMRC website. These programs have received citations in the 19TH UGC-CEC All India Educational Video Competition held at New Delhi in Oct-Nov 2007 in the categories Best Programme in E-content and Best Presenter / Anchor Person. Amita was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by Prasar Bharti (Doordarshan) in November 2015.
She has been the Head of the Department of Dance (2001-2003 & 2014) and the Dean of the Faculty Council of Undergraduate and Post Graduate Studies in Fine Arts (2006-2010) at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. Her associations with other major Universities as Resource Person, Expert, Visiting Fellow and Examiner include Visvabharati (Santiniketan), Indira Kala Sangit Vishwa Vidyalaya (Khairagarh), M.S.University (Baroda), Punjabi University (Patiala), Calcutta University, Banaras Hindua University, North Bengal University, Bhatkhande Music Institute Deemed University, Jadavpur University, Kalyani University, Tripura University, Bharatidasan University (Tiruchirapalli) and University of Burdwan. She has also given Lecture Demonstrations at various Universities in USA including the Universities of Arizona, Duke, Yale, Purdue, Ohio, Miami, Delaware, Fayetteville State, Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Tulsa and Central Florida.
Amita has been teaching Online through the Massive Open Online Course titled Foundation Course in Kathak (June to December 2020, July to December 2021) and Junior Course in Kathak (January to June 2021) hosted on MHRD's SWAYAM portal with EMMRC, St. Xavier's College as the Regional Nodal Agency. These courses are supported by the Consortium for Education Communication (CEC) and the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Amita was awarded the Shiksha Ratna Award for 2017 by the Government of West Bengal, Department of Education for her contribution to Higher Education and the Parul Shiksha Samman 2017 by the University of Calcutta. She was also awarded the Anupama Award 2017 for her contribution to Women's Empowerment by Turnstone Global.
She was invited by the Government of the United States to the prestigious American Dance Festival where she performed, taught in Master Classes and attended an Arts Management Course. Subsequently she has also contributed to her field as an organizer and manager. She was the Convener, Culture of the Bishwa Banga Millennium Festival and the Artistic Director of the Kathak Mahotsav 2000. She has also been the Coordinator for UGC Refresher Courses on Performing &Visual Arts at her University.
Amongst the innumerable awards and honours conferred on her, mention may be made of the titles of Singar Mani, Nritya Urvashi, Nritya Sagar, Nritya Jyoti and Nritya Bharati. She has been honoured at the North American Bengali Conference and the Mayor of Cincinnati, USA gave her the Keys to the City thereby making her an Honorary Citizen and also called that day, May 15, 1994, Amita Dutt Day. In November 2004 she received the Governor’s Commendation in recognition of her contribution to Art from Brad Henry, Governor of the State of Oklahoma, USA. On May 26, 2014, she was conferred the Uday Shankar Award – Lifetime Achievement Award for Dance - by the Government of West Bengal.
Always eager to serve society and the downtrodden, Amita has given innumerable performances for social service causes – both to create awareness and collect funds. She is an active member of the Rotary Club of Calcutta, having served in the capacities of Editor, Director and Chairperson. She is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow and is the wife of the Past District Governor of Rotary International, Dr. Amitava Mookerjee.
She is the Founder Director of the Performing Arts Therapy Centre at Rabindra Bharati University where research is conducted and training is given to serve the ailing and the impaired through dance, drama and music.
She has been the Chairman of the Special Cell for Women’s Issues at Rabindra Bharati University for five years and has taught on issues of Women’s Empowerment at various Universities and Institutes. She is the External Expert for Committees on “The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act, 2013” for several divisions of Indian Oil Corporation Limited and La Opala RG Ltd.
Scholar, choreographer, danseuse and professor, Amita’s main aim is to popularize her dance and she has never turned down an opportunity to spread the message of her art at home or abroad. She has given innumerable performances for academic institutions and conferences and social service causes.
Amita’s present passion is to establish the Bengal Gharana of Kathak. Over the last 150 years Kathak has become a part of the cultural heritage of Bengal. Innumerable performers, teachers and students of Kathak are spread all over the state. Amita wants to crystallize Bengal’s contribution to Kathak - which also features her Kathak creations - and lay the foundations of the Bengal Gharana of Kathak.
