Renowned Kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das has been awarded a 2009 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. The fellowship is considered the nation’s highest honor for artists in the folk and traditional arts. Previous recipients include bluesman B.B. King, Cajun fiddler/composer Michael Doucet, cowboy poet Wally McRae and gospel/soul singer Mavis Singer.
Pandit Das is a virtuosic performer in the Kathak tradition, the classical dance of Northern India known for its narrative elements and rhythmic footwork. He began his training at the age of nine and was schooled in two major Kathak traditions: the graceful expression of the Lucknow school and the rhythmic mastery and complicated dance patterns of the Jiapur School.
In 1970, Pandit Das received a Whitney Fellowship through the University of Maryland to teach Kathak. He would go on to form the first university-accredited Kathak course in the U.S., organize his own school, Chhandam, that has flowered into branches across the globe, including California, Boston, Denver, Toronto, Canada, Tokyo, Japan and Kolkata, India, start his own dance company, Chitresh Das Dance Company, and develop a revolutionary technique called “Kathak Yoga.” Throughout, he has continued his work in India where he teaches empowerment through dance to the children in the slums and the daughters of sex workers.
Although schooled in the traditional methods, he embraces “innovation within tradition” and explores the boundaries of Kathak technique. For the past couple of years, he has collaborated with tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith in an exchange of traditions. A documentary on the award-winning collaboration is currently in production and will air nationally on PBS.
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