Chandralekha | |
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| Born | (1928-12-06)6 December 1928 |
| Died | 30 December 2006(2006-12-30) (aged 78) |
Chandralekha Prabhudas Patel (6 December 1928 – 30 December 2006), commonly known asChandralekha, was a dancer and choreographer fromIndia. The niece ofVallabhbhai Patel, India's first deputy Prime Minister, she was an exponent of performances fusingBharatanatyam withYoga and martial arts likeKalarippayattu.
She was conferred the highest award of theSangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, theSangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2004.
She was born to anagnostic doctor father and a devoutHindu mother inVada,Maharashtra. She spent her childhood in her nativeGujarat and in Maharashtra.[1]
After completing high school, Chandralekha studied law, but quit her studies midway to learn dance instead. She started withDasi Attam, a form of dance practiced by temple dancers in southern India, under the tutelage ofEllappa Pillai. She was also influenced byBalasaraswati andRukmini Devi Arundale in her dance education, but her choreography shows that she was more influenced by the former.[1][2] Although Chandralekha received her early training inBharatanatyam, she went on to change her focus to postmodern fusion dances that incorporated elements from other dances, martial arts likeKalarippayattu, and performing arts.[3][4] Her essay 'Militant Origins of Indian Dance', originally published inSocial Scientist in 1979,[5] was later reprinted in the volumeImprovised Futures: Encountering the Body in Performance, part of the India Since the 90s series published byTulika Books.
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