Tanushree Shankar

🪔 About

Tanusree Shankar, born on March 16, 1956, is an internationally acclaimed Indian dancer and choreographer based in Kolkata, India. She is renowned for her distinctive contemporary Indian dance style, which seamlessly blends traditional Indian dance forms with modern Western ballet expressions, carrying forward the pioneering movement vocabulary of her father-in-law, Uday Shankar. Tanusree Shankar received extensive training in various classical Indian dance forms. She was admitted to the Uday Shankar India Cultural Centre, where she rigorously studied Bharatanatyam under Guru Gyan Prakash ji, Kathakali under Guru P Raghavan ji, and Manipuri dance under Guru Tarun Singh ji. Additionally, she trained for seven years under Amala Shankar. In the 1970s and 1980s, Tanusree Shankar was a leading dancer of the Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts. She later founded the Tanusree Shankar Dance Academy in Kolkata in 1986, and currently leads the Tanusree Shankar Dance Company, which serves as a prominent institution for contemporary Indian performing arts. Her choreography, rooted in the Uday Shankar technique of "New Dance," is characterized by its originality, universal appeal, and ability to give concrete shape to musical inspirations. Tanusree Shankar's dance company has achieved global recognition, touring extensively to over 40 countries and performing at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. She has also undertaken significant choreographic projects, including for the Asian Games, the Festival of India in the USSR, the Wills World Cup Cricket Championships, and an Indo-French Ballet titled "Padmavati" in Paris in 2008, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Her contributions to dance were recognized with the esteemed Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2011 for Creative and Experimental Dance. Tanusree Shankar has also ventured into acting, appearing in films like "The Namesake" (2006) and "The Waiting City" (2009). Her daughter, Sreenanda Shankar, is also a dancer with the Tanusree Shankar Dance Company, continuing the family's artistic legacy. Awards & Honours: Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (2011).