Mamata Shankar's dance workshop in full swing

Mamata Shankar, daughter of legendary Indian dancer Uday Shankar and Amala Shankar, is an accomplished dancer, choreographer and actress. The dance diva is now in Dhaka and has been conducting a dance workshop at the Rehearsal room of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Shadhona – A Centre for Advancement of South Asian Culture is organising the workshop.

Mamata Shankar; Lubna Marium, artistic director Shadhona; Sharmila Banerjee, director of Nrityanandan; Chandrodoy Ghosh, husband of Mamata Shankar and Aditya Mitra, secretary of West Bengal Dance Group Federation formally inaugurated the workshop on August 4. Nineteen participants are taking part in the workshop where Mamata Shankar will acquaint the Bangladeshi dancers with Uday Shankar's choreography processes.

Following the workshop, a grand dance presentation will be held at the main auditorium of Bangladesh National Museum (BNM) at 7pm on August 8. Shadhona in association with BNM will arrange the show. Apart from dance displays by the workshop participants, artistes of Mamata Shankar Dance Company will perform at the event.

On the other hand, Indira Gandhi Culture Centre (IGCC) is organising a lecture by Mamata Shankar on her father Pandit Uday Shankar at 6:30pm today at the IGCC auditorium.

Mamata Shankar had her basic training in dance and choreography at the Uday Shankar India Culture Centre in Kolkata under the guidance of her mother Amala Shankar. Mamata, following in the footsteps of her late father has imbibed that rare sense of choreography, which, apart from being highly imaginative is truly Indian in spirit.

Over the past 29 years, Mamata has choreographed several dance-dramas and short dance items on wide ranging contemporary themes. Amongst the most notable are Tagore's “Chandalika”, “Horikhela” “Ajker Eklabya”, “Milap”, “Shikar”, “Basantotsav”, “Prakriti”, “Kalmrigaya”, “Mother Earth” and “Amritasya Putra”. She runs the Udayan - Mamta Shankar Dance Company founded in 1986, which travels around the world with the “Mamata Shankar Ballet Troupe”.

Mamata Shankar is also an accomplished actress. Her first film was “Mrigaya” in 1976 directed by Mrinal Sen which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. She has played memorable roles in many films directed by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Rituporno Ghosh, Buddhadev Dasgupta and Gautam Ghosh.