PadmaShree Guru Shovana Narayan
Guru Shovana Narayan is a leading Kathak Dancer of India. A multi-faceted personality, she is a widely acclaimed performing artist, choreographer, Kathak guru, researcher, author and recently retired from her role of a prominent bureaucrat in the Indian Government.
Early Training
Ms Shovana Narayan is one of the best known disciples of the maestro, Pt. Birju Maharaj. She started learning Kathak at the tender age of four from the famous dancer-cum-actress Smt. Sadhana Bose at Calcutta and later by Guru Kundanlal at Bombay. This helped her combine the best techniques, elegance and rhythmic strengths of both the Lucknow and Jaipur Gharanas and establish a style that was uniquely hers.
Performer, Choreographer & Researcher
Ms Shovana has mesmerized audiences all over the world at many prestigious recitals, festivals, seminars and performed for several prominent artistes, dignitaries and heads of state. In her career spanning several decades, she has made outstanding contributions to the field of Kathak. She conceptualized many choreographic works on poems and literary works of comtemporary writers and pholosophers. As a keen researcher, she has dug deep into mythology and brought unique stories and details into her choreographies, often presenting them through a fresh perspective. She has addressed environmental and social issues, women's struggles and portrayed the lives and works of saints, sages and intellectuals through her choreographies. She has authored 10 books and several articles based on dance.
The Trail-Blazer
As a dancer and choreographer she was clearly ahead of her times. Drawing upon the similarities between Kathak and other dance forms like Flamenco, Western Classical Ballet and Tap, she performed with famous dancers of these styles at a time when there was no precedence of "Contemporary" or "Fusion" Kathak as we know them today. She has given various dance performances with dancers of other Indian classical dance forms as well. She has always been celebrated as a bold performer, who was never afraid to experiment with new concepts, but at the same time preserved the purity of her own dance form. In this sense, she paved the way for various artistes to try various experiments with Kathak that has really enriched and added new dimensions to the dance form.
Awards
The list of her accolades and achievements is very long. She has been bestowed with numerous awards for her work, some of which are the Padmashri Award for excellence and outstanding contribution to dance by the President of India in 1992, the Sangeet Natak Akademi award by the President of India in 1999-2000, Delhi Govt’s Parishad Samman, Rajiv Gandhi Puraskar, Bihar Gaurav Puraskar, Indira Priyadarshini Samman, Kelvinator’s GR8Award, Rotary International Award, International Congress of Women and Japan’s Oisca Award.
Kathak Guru
Shovana Didi, as she is lovingly called by her students, established the Asavari School of Dance and Music in New Delhi and has been teaching Kathak for over 3 decades. She teaches her disciples not only the technical aspects of Kathak but also an attitude of relentless pursuit of excellence, in dance, in academics and as a human being. She inspires her students to follow her example of using dance as an outlet for your creativity and at the same time as a medium to improve society by bringing awareness to social issues that are close to your heart.
Dual Career
She has masterfully managed two careers in parallel, one an internationally acclaimed classical dancer and another of a Senior Civil Servant in the Indian Government. She is an IAAS officer of the 1976 batch, now retired from Government Service. She has a double MPhil degrees in Defence and Strategic Studies and in Social Sciences & Public Administration and also a Masters in Physics from Delhi University.
Early Training
Ms Shovana Narayan is one of the best known disciples of the maestro, Pt. Birju Maharaj. She started learning Kathak at the tender age of four from the famous dancer-cum-actress Smt. Sadhana Bose at Calcutta and later by Guru Kundanlal at Bombay. This helped her combine the best techniques, elegance and rhythmic strengths of both the Lucknow and Jaipur Gharanas and establish a style that was uniquely hers.
Performer, Choreographer & Researcher
Ms Shovana has mesmerized audiences all over the world at many prestigious recitals, festivals, seminars and performed for several prominent artistes, dignitaries and heads of state. In her career spanning several decades, she has made outstanding contributions to the field of Kathak. She conceptualized many choreographic works on poems and literary works of comtemporary writers and pholosophers. As a keen researcher, she has dug deep into mythology and brought unique stories and details into her choreographies, often presenting them through a fresh perspective. She has addressed environmental and social issues, women's struggles and portrayed the lives and works of saints, sages and intellectuals through her choreographies. She has authored 10 books and several articles based on dance.
The Trail-Blazer
As a dancer and choreographer she was clearly ahead of her times. Drawing upon the similarities between Kathak and other dance forms like Flamenco, Western Classical Ballet and Tap, she performed with famous dancers of these styles at a time when there was no precedence of "Contemporary" or "Fusion" Kathak as we know them today. She has given various dance performances with dancers of other Indian classical dance forms as well. She has always been celebrated as a bold performer, who was never afraid to experiment with new concepts, but at the same time preserved the purity of her own dance form. In this sense, she paved the way for various artistes to try various experiments with Kathak that has really enriched and added new dimensions to the dance form.
Awards
The list of her accolades and achievements is very long. She has been bestowed with numerous awards for her work, some of which are the Padmashri Award for excellence and outstanding contribution to dance by the President of India in 1992, the Sangeet Natak Akademi award by the President of India in 1999-2000, Delhi Govt’s Parishad Samman, Rajiv Gandhi Puraskar, Bihar Gaurav Puraskar, Indira Priyadarshini Samman, Kelvinator’s GR8Award, Rotary International Award, International Congress of Women and Japan’s Oisca Award.
Kathak Guru
Shovana Didi, as she is lovingly called by her students, established the Asavari School of Dance and Music in New Delhi and has been teaching Kathak for over 3 decades. She teaches her disciples not only the technical aspects of Kathak but also an attitude of relentless pursuit of excellence, in dance, in academics and as a human being. She inspires her students to follow her example of using dance as an outlet for your creativity and at the same time as a medium to improve society by bringing awareness to social issues that are close to your heart.
Dual Career
She has masterfully managed two careers in parallel, one an internationally acclaimed classical dancer and another of a Senior Civil Servant in the Indian Government. She is an IAAS officer of the 1976 batch, now retired from Government Service. She has a double MPhil degrees in Defence and Strategic Studies and in Social Sciences & Public Administration and also a Masters in Physics from Delhi University.