Tanusree Shankar

Tanushree Shankar (born 16 March 1956) (Bengali: তনুশ্রী শঙ্কর) is one of the leading dancers and choreographers of contemporary dance in India. She is based in Kolkata, India. She earned her fame as the leading dancer of the Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts in the 1970s and 1980s. She also acted in various films, like The Namesake.

Tanushree Shankar now leads the Tanushree Shankar Dance Company, an exponent of contemporary dance forms in India. She has evolved her own modern idiom by marrying traditional Indian dances with modern western ballet expressions. She has been inspired by her lineage as much by the folk and regional dance forms of India. She has drawn extensively from rich local Indian traditions such as the "Thang-ta" (Manipuri Sword dance).

She travels with her troupe extensively around the world. Her last notable productions include Uttaran (Upliftment of the soul) and Chirantan (The eternal) which is based on Rabindranath Tagore's music.

Family

Tanusree Shankar was born in Calcutta. Her husband, the late Ananda Shankar, was a world-famous music composer who experimented with fusion music. He was the son of dancers Pandit Uday Shankar and Amala Shankar and the nephew of the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.

External links

• Tanusree Shankar Dance Company
• Sarah Kaufman, An Indian Oasis Amid Modernity, Washington Post, published Saturday, September 22, 2007, p C05 accessed 23 September 2007