Page 24 - The Indian EYE 010821

NORTH AMERICAN Newsline JANUARY 08, 2021 | The Indian Eye 24

sunil kOthari:

the man who brough indian

dance history to us

Our Bureau for his contribution to Indian
dance as a scholar. Kothari was
New Delhi/New York among the 27 artistes who were

amous dance historian served a notice in November to
and critic Sunil Kothari evict their government-allotted
Fpassed away Sunday homes by December 31. The
morning at a Delhi hospital af- dance historian had said he felt
ter he suffered a cardiac arrest “humiliated” on being served
a month after testing positive the “get out” notice.
for coronavirus. He was 87. “He
had tested positive for Covid-19 “i am a padma shri and
almost a month back and was
not in a good condition,” Vidha sangeet natak akademi
Lal, a family friend and herself a awardee. i have written sev-
dancer, told PTI.
Kothari, who frequently lec- eral books on indian classi-
tured in the United States, stud- cal dance forms and allied
ied the traditions and techniques
of dance forms from the north art forms and have been
of India to the south, and from part of many committees,
the east to the west, interview-
ing hundreds of gurus, many of and this is what my gov-
whom, in a country that remains ernment gives me return.”
largely ethnocentric, dismissed
his efforts because he did not
speak their local languages. “I feel humiliated that at this
Born on December 20, 1933 age I have been sent, what I call
in Mumbai, Kothari qualified as a ‘get out’ notice, and asked to
a Chartered Accountant before leave the place which has been
turning to the study of Indian home to me for the past 20
dance forms. He authored more years,” he had told.
than 20 books on the subject of According to an obituary in
Indian dance forms including the New York Times, Kothari
“Sattriya Dances of Assam”, sunil Kothari in New York in 2019. “had encounters with dance
“New Directions in Indian credit: suman Gollamudi/indo american arts council figures like Rudolf Nureyev,
Dance”, and also on Bharatana- the choreographers Pina Baus-
tayam, Odissi, Chhau, Kathak, tic voice. He was not somebody Kothari received numerous ch and Maurice Béjart and the
Kuchipudi, and Photo Biog- who would just come for the titles and awards for his contri- British theater director Peter
raphies of Uday Shankar and dance, he would even come for bution to Indian dance forms Brook. A frequent lecturer in
Rukmini Devi Arundale. the rehearsals, he would talk to including the Sangeet Natak the United States, he made his
Dancer and long-time as- everybody present, he wanted to Akademi Award (1995); the last trip to New York City in
sociate Anita Ratnam remem- know the whole process. He was Gaurav Puraskar conferred by May 2019, when he spoke at the
bered the late critic for his “in- part of a very important dance the Gujarat Sangeet Natak Ak- New York Public Library on the
fectious enthusiasm”. movement,” Ratnam said, as ademi (2000); the Padma Shri mid-20th-century dance lumi-
Kothari had first met her at a quoted by PTI. bestowed by the Government of naries Ram Gopal and Mrinali-
dance recital in 1970 in Chennai The dance scholar held the India (2001); and the Life Time ni Sarabhai. He wore his exper-
when she was just a teenager. Uday Shankar Chair in Rabin- Achievement Award of the tise lightly, often speaking with
“After the performance, he dra Bharati University, and Dance Critics Association, New an innocent-sounding glee.”
rushed backstage and looked taught in the Dance Depart- York, USA (2011). At his death, Kothari had
at me and said ‘apsara! apsara! ment of New York University as He was also an elected Fel- completed an autobiography,
(fairy) in his normal enthusias- a Fulbright Professor. low of Sangeet Natak Akademi which has yet to be published.

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