Kumaon has been the favourite place of many a great scholar, poet, artistes or other aesthethically inclined people. Some famous names that come to mind are Mahatma Gandhi, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Mahadevi Verma and “Nritya Samrat” Uday Shankar .
The last named was the pioneer of modern dance in India and a world renowned dancer and choreographer, who had a deep admiration for the place and set up his “dream cultural centre” in Simtola near Almora in 1938. It was called “Uday Shankar India Cultural Centre.” His legacy is still cherished in Uttarakhand, especially in Kumaon where his concept of dance left an indelible mark on various aspects of the cultural fabric of the region. Hopefully, it will soon manifest itself in the Uday Shankar Academy of Music and Dance at Falsima in Almora. The maestro invented, during his stay in Almora, the fusion of the famous ballet based Kumaoni Ram lila and the classical style of dance.
Uday Shankar’s dance was inspired by various arts including painting, theatre, sculpture and poetry. Not many people are aware that among the students who were part of his centre were famous actress Zohra Sehgal, Uday Shankar’s wife Amala, the legendary actor and director Guru Dutt and singer lakshmi Shankar
Uday Shankar was the eldest son of noted barrister Syam Shankar. He was the eldest of the four siblings. His youngest brother, Rabindra was the famous sitar maestro "Pandit Ravi Shankar". Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar.
Uday Shankar was a born dancer who had formal training in classical dances inIndia before he went to England in 1929. While in Europe, he was exposed to ballet. The graceful movements of ballet dancers impressed him and he incorporated these in Indian dance creating a new kind of Indian dance. His dances were, however, rooted in Hindu mythology. He had a wonderful gift of taking the essence from various dance traditions and techniques and using them to choreograph his dance – dramas. And in that he succeeded marvelously.
Besides an adept classical dancer, Uday Shankar also had the brilliance of a painter within. To develop his skills further, he was sent to the JJ School of the Arts in Bombay. In 1920, Uday Shankar went to England to study painting at theRoyal College of Art, london. There, he choreographed two ballads, based on the stories of Radha and Krishna and the other on "A Hindu Wedding". In 1929, Uday Shankar returned to India to form a dance troupe of his own.
After Uday Shankar’s death on September 26, 1977, Amala Shankar took the charge of the school in Kolkata. The school continues to teach an all-embracing performance curriculum that includes training in folk and classical dance, improvisation and costume design.
Shankar’s memories cannot be erased from the hills of Kumaon which were a great inspiration for this excellent artiste .