Kathak: From the Archives of the Sangeet Natak Akademi

in Image Gallery
Published on: 22 November 2018

Siddhi Goel

Siddhi Goel is a Kathak dancer based in Delhi. She holds an M.A. Arts and Aesthetics, from School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, where she focussed on Dance History and Performance Studies. She has also completed her Diploma (Hons) in Kathak from Kathak Kendra. A disciple of Pandit Jai Kishan Maharaj, she has been learning Kathak for over 15 years and performing actively since the past 5 years. Apart from dancing, her work interest lies in arts management and curation.

These photos give us a glimpse of one of the first generations of Kathak dancers and gurus from the post-Independence era. This is the time when Kathak is slowly gaining prominence in the mainstream society as a ‘respectable’ dance form. The dance, which was strongly associated with the courtesan salon and hereditary women communities, had to shed this ‘embarrassing’ historical reference, at the great cost of eliminating the courtesans who were esteemed artists themselves. Post Independence, the dance slowly opened up to women coming from non-dancing families, who embraced the form and also greatly enriched it. Some of the future pioneers of Kathak like Kumudini Lakhia, Maya Rao, etc., were students during this time, learning from male hereditary gurus of Jaipur, Lucknow and Benaras Gharana. This process was greatly facilitated by coming up of institutions as teaching centres, where students from all walks of life could seek admission in a relatively egalitarian way.

 

I would like to thank Mr. Pritpal Singh, Library and Information Assistant at Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi for his support. All photos are courtesy Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi Office Archives