Born a month before India attained Independence, Astad Deboo broke free of the constraints imposed by traditional dance forms to create a modern idiom of rhythm and movement that was uniquely Indian and all his own.
Avant garde, unconventional, pioneer… the epithets were many for the artiste who defied societal norms of gender and ‘regular’ career choices to become one of India’s first and perhaps most well known contemporary dancers.
Deboo, who once termed his art “contemporary in vocabulary and traditional in restraint”, died on Thursday at the age of 73 leaving behind his two sisters and legions of fans and friends.
From kathak to kathakali and ballet to bharatnatyam, his art synthesised them all to create a modern dance vocabulary that found space in varied stages – as much at home in the Guruvayoor temple as at the Great Wall of China – and varied audiences.
The range was bewildering, going all the way from performing with rock band Pink Floyd at London’s Chelsea Town Hall and dhrupad singers, the Gundecha Brothers, to Pina Bausch of the Wuppertal Dance Company in Germany and the Pung Cholom dancers of Manipur.
All in a dance career that spanned half a century with performances, including solo, group and collaborative choreography, in over 70 countries, “He was his own peon, performer, persuader and creative giant, who danced from the Great Wall of China to the mountains of Alps, everywhere…
People in high art will mourn him, his Manipuri dancers will be praying for his beautiful soul, his dancers of Delhi from the economically weak backgrounds will be in shock to lose him, his physically challenged children will feel his absence,” theatre actor-director and old time friend M K Raina said in a tribute on social media. (PTI)
