Chitresh Das
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A child prodigy, Pandit Chitresh Das (born November 9, 1944) is one of the most dynamic and far-reaching artists to have emerged from modern India. A prolific artist, his performance, choreography and evolution of Kathak, classical dance of North India, have influenced the art form world-wide. Pandit Das is not only a master and virtuosic performer of the classical Kathak tradition, but a dedicated teacher who has trained many dancers with a strong base in the tradition to go on and establish their own careers in Kathak dance.
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[edit] History
Pandit Chitresh Das is a disciple of the great Kathak guru, Pandit Ram Narayan Misra. He was schooled in both major Kathak traditions, embodying each in his artistry: the graceful and sensual elements of the Lucknow school combined with the dynamic and powerful rhythms and movements of the Jaipur School. Pandit Das grew up in the institution, Nritya Bharati, founded and directed by his parents, Nrityacharya Prohlad Das and Smt. Nilima Das, where many of India's greatest gurus came to perform and teach. Das was a child prodigy in India who quickly attained national fame, performing at age 11 with the legendary tabla maestro Pandit Samta Prasadji and performed a special concert for the great Indian dance icon Uday Shankar. His performing career was launched in India when he was invited by Pandit Ravi Shankar to perform in the first Rimpa Festival in Benaras.
Pandit Chitresh Das was brought to the United States in 1970 on a Whitney Fellowship to teach Kathak at the University of Maryland. In 1971, renowned Indian classical musician [Ustad Ali Akbar Khan] invited him to establish a dance program at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California. Pandit Das’ desire to reach out and expand his work prompted him to found his own dance company and school in 1979, Chitresh Das Dance Company & Chhandam School of Kathak, incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1980. Today, Chhandam boasts as one of the world’s foremost Indian classical dance companies and the largest Kathak institution in North America with additional branches in India, Boston and Toronto.
[edit] Innovation within Tradition
Based on the concept of “innovation within tradition,” Pandit Das explores the boundaries of Kathak technique and performance, creating compelling, new works and techniques that are inventive, yet deeply rooted in the Kathak tradition. His ground-breaking technique, Kathak Yoga, is the subject of a doctoral dissertation at Harvard University by Dr. Sarah Morelli. “A performer who has opened new avenues for his form, it is easy to see why Das has been acknowledged as a phenomenon.” (Hindustan Times, India).
[edit] Major Accomplishments
Pandit Das formed the first university accredited Kathak course in the US at San Francisco State University and has been a guest faculty member at Stanford University. He was brought to teach twice at the West Bengal State Academy and represented the state of Bengal in tours throughout India. In 2003 was featured at India’s national Kathak Festival in New Delhi. In 2004 he performed at the prestigious American Dance Festival, was a featured artist at the International Kathak Festival in Chicago, and performed in February 2005 for 4,000 Indian soldiers in Fort William, Calcutta, India. He was also featured on the BBC Series “Eighty Treasures Around the World”, and in the PBS series “Indians in America”. Pandit Das’ 2005 collaboration, India Jazz Suites with Tap star Jason Samuels Smith, was selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as the #1 dance performance of 2005. In January 2006, Pandit Das’ performance and interview were filmed for a national broadcast in India.
[edit] Awards
Pandit Das has received numerous awards and grants from Olympic Arts Festival, National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, California Arts Council, Rockefeller Foundation, Irvine Fellowships in Dance, among others. He received the Isadora Duncan Dance Award (Izzie) for best dancer of the year and his collaborative production, East as Center. He also received an Izzie award for outstanding choreography and performance in 2004. In 2005 he was named a “Dance Icon of the West” by the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum and in 2006 was given a Goldie Lifetime Achievement Award by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
[edit] Arts as Service to Society
Pandit Das ultimately sees art as a service to society and devotes time to those in need, including teaching children in the slums of India, the Blind Opera of Calcutta and his most important project of teaching empowerment and self-awareness through dance to the daughters of sex workers in partnership with the New Light Foundation in Calcutta, India.
