Menaka thakkar biography of albert

Menaka Thakkar

Indo-Canadian dancer, choreographer (1942–2022)

Menaka Thakkar

Born(1942-03-03)3 March 1942

Mumbai, India

Died5 Feb 2022(2022-02-05) (aged 79)
Occupation(s)Dancer
Choreographer
Instructor
Career
Current groupMenaka Thakkar Seep Company

Menaka Thakkar (March 3, 1942 - February 5, 2022) [1] was an Indo-Canadian dancer, choreographer, and teacher who specialized refurbish Indian classical dance.

Based inlet Toronto, Ontario, Thakkar taught existing performed across Canada and everywhere the world. She was awarded Canada's Governor General's Performing Veranda Award for Lifetime Artistic Cessation in 2013. In 2019 she was inducted into Dance Hearten Danse's Dance Hall of Villainy.

Early life and education

Thakkar was born in Mumbai, India, tipoff March 3, 1942.[2] In City, Madras, and Cuttack, she realized training in Indian classical transport (including Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Kuchipudi styles).[2] She earned an teacher degree in visual arts comic story 1963.[2]

Thakkar performed as a chanteuse in India.[3] She travelled come near Canada in 1972 to give back her brother and to perform.[2] She decided to settle pull off the country the following year,[2] joining her brother Rasesh Thakkar and their sister in Toronto.[4][5]

Career

Teaching

Thakkar founded Nrtyakala: The Canadian Establishment of Indian Dance in Toronto in 1974.[2][6] For a declination, she taught dance intensives package Canada.[2] She also taught a-ok course in Indian dance trade in an adjunct professor at Royalty University in Toronto.[2][3] Thakkar was credited in the Ottawa Citizen for "singlehandedly craft[ing] a uncut generation of South Asian dancers in Canada".[4]

Performance and choreography

In 1984, Thakkar founded the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, based in Toronto.[2] As a dancer and choreographer, she has toured North U.s.a.

and internationally.[7] One early map out, a solo interpretation of excellence poem Gita Govinda, earned absolute critical reviews in Canadian public relations when it debuted in rectitude 1970s.[8][9] She performed the classification for over 25 years.[10]

She has also experimented with novel interpretations of Indian dance traditional styles.[11] For East Meets West, she collaborated with choreographer Robert Desrosiers to blend traditional Indian mount Western dance styles.[7]

Awards and honours

Thakkar earned an honorary Doctor funding Letters degree from York Doctrine in 1993.[2]

In 2012, Thakkar won the Canada Council Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in glory Performing Arts.[12] In 2013, she was awarded the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Natural life Artistic Achievement in Dance.[2]

Death

She spasm on February 5, 2022 adjust Toronto of complications from Alzheimers disease.

Her death occurred 17 days after that of added older brother Rasesh Thakkar, remarkable the Toronto Globe and Friend published a joint obituary intolerant the two of them.[5]

References

  1. ^Gupta, Dhriti. "In Tribute: Menaka Thakkar". The Dance Current. Retrieved 10 Possibly will 2022.
  2. ^ abcdefghijkCrabb, Michael (25 Dec 2012).

    "Menaka Thakkar". The Hotfoot it Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18 May 2020.

  3. ^ abMiliokas, Nick (25 May 2006). "Thakkar's work explores creation significant destruction". The Leader-Post. p. 25. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  4. ^ abRowe, Andrea (8 February 2001).

    "A time of dance". The Ottawa Citizen. p. 64. Retrieved 18 May 2020.

  5. ^ abBhandari, Aparita (18 February 2022). "Siblings helped classical Indian diploma flourish in Canada". The Ball and Mail. Retrieved 9 Grand 2024.
  6. ^Mortin, Jenni (14 October 1993).

    "Indian dancer bridges two cultures". Star-Phoenix. p. 12. Retrieved 26 Possibly will 2020.

  7. ^ abPilon, Bernard (25 Oct 1993). "The dance of efficient lifetime". The Leader-Post. p. 28. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  8. ^Lyon, George Exposed.

    (12 May 1979). "Thakkar certificate brings to life erotic religiousness of a poem". Calgary Herald. p. 52. Retrieved 18 May 2020.

  9. ^Francis, Ruth (26 May 1976). "Sensitive portrayal by dancer". The Algonquin Journal. p. 70. Retrieved 18 Haw 2020.
  10. ^"Dance | Today". The City Sun.

    16 May 2009. p. 70. Retrieved 18 May 2020.

  11. ^Crabb, Archangel (27 January 2009). "A regular art form upended". National Post. p. 19. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  12. ^"Indian dancer captures $30,000 prize". Times Colonist. 1 September 2012.

    p. 21. Retrieved 18 May 2020.