Renowned Kathak danseuse Sitara Devi, whom Rabindranath Tagore had once described as “Natya Samragini” (Empress of dance), passed away at the Joslok Hospital here on Tuesday, following prolonged illness. Sitara Devi nee Dhanalakshmi, who not only revived the classical dance form in her own way but also popularised the performing art among masses across the country through Hindi films, was 94.
Full of energy and verve, Sitara had over the years developed her own niche style of Kathak dancing, by drawing extensively from themes, poetry and choreography evolved by her Vaishanavite scholar-father Sukhadev Maharaj, an exponent of “Bhartanatyashatra” and Kathak, and experimenting on what she had seen in a girl or woman — in the form of a gait or steps of a village belle or a veiled pleasant woman –in her growing years.
Incidentally, her father Sukhadev Maharaj – who earned his livelihood by teaching and performing Kathak dances in different parts of India in the 1920s and 1930s – had been encouraged none less than Rabindranath Tagore to revive of the lost form of Indian performing arts particularly Kathak.
During her dancing career lasting for over six decades, she was conferred a number of awards including Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1969) and the Padma Shree (1973), Kalidas Samman (1995).