Profile
Biography
Sushmita Banerjee is one of the most distinguished Kathak performers in India. She began her talim at the age of four in the Lucknow gharana and has since danced across Europe, Africa, North America, Southeast Asia and India.
She trained under Guru Pandit Ramnarayan Mishra, Shrimati Maya Chatterjee and Pandit Vijay Shankar, and revived the Katha Shaili of Kathak under the tutelage of Birju Maharaj. She keeps centers in Kolkata, Kerala and Geneva.
She has won many dance competitions and drawn strong notices from the press and from fellow artists. She was among the few to take a distinction in the Nritya Prabhakar examination.
She has taken part in many debates and talks on All India Radio, Kolkata.
She sits on the board of judges for the intercollegiate dance competition that Calcutta University holds each year.
Away from Kathak, she graduated from Loreto College, Calcutta, and took her degree in English literature at Calcutta University. She is a keen golfer.
Choreographic works
- AfricaA piece based on Tagore's “Africa.”
- AbhisharA piece based on Tagore's “Abhishar.”
- PratikshaThe eternal wait
- SitaAn episode from the Ramayana
- Tal-TarangAn eclectic fusion of North and South Indian percussion instruments
- ChakravyuhaAdapted from the Mahabharata
- KumarasambhavamWritten by Kalidasa; produced at the request of Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand
- MalavikagnimitramWritten by Kalidasa
- HanumanAdapted from the Ramayana
- Gauhar JaanA tribute to the songstress, dancer and entertainer par excellence
The Ministry of Culture and Human Resource Development has supported all of these productions.
Research
She is researching and reviving old compositions of Wajid Ali Shah, the last nawab of Oudh, work she says will enrich Kathak and give it a new dimension.
The Indian government awarded her its Emeritus Fellowship for that research.
Awards
- Emeritus Fellowship, Ministry of Culture and Human Resource Development
- Sringarmani, Sur Sringar Sansad, Mumbai
- Arya Natya Samaj, West Bengal
Reviews
“Sushmita Banerjee offered a stunning example of how personal initiative could take a Tagore subject in interesting directions when she staged ‘Abhishar,’ a collage of music, poetry and dance.”
“Vidushi Sushmita Banerjee and her troupe present Rabindranath Tagore's ‘Abhishar’ at Gyan Manch to a packed audience.”
“Her footwork as executed in Layakari was flawless.”
“Sushmita has good footwork as well as acumen in Abhinaya. Her Abhinaya in Ghalib's ghazal had a freshness both in its imagery and presentation.”
“Sushmita unleashed her superb tayyari with confidence and ease. Her movements were replete with nazakat and khubsurati, which are the salient features of the Lucknow gharana.”
“Her ladi exhibited deft footwork in combined laya patterns.”
“She went through the tayyari and concluded with Makhan Chori, which she enacted with apt mime.”
“Sushmita's footwork was exquisite.”
“Sushmita Banerjee is a very talented and hard working artist.”
“It was wonderful to see you again in Calcutta and we enjoyed your performance.”
“Tulsidas's ‘Ramcharitmanas’ was creatively interpreted by Sushmita through her own choreography. Thereafter she presented her piece de resistance, ‘Kumarsambhavam’ of Kalidasa, which has not been previously attempted in the Kathak idiom.”
“Sushmita created a distinctive mode in her Ekahari Shaili of Kathak at the Kathak Kalakshetra Festival in Rabindra Bharati in Hyderabad. She perfectly balanced expressional items and rhythmical variations, and her Tehais and Parans had a spontaneous spirit.”
“Sushmita opened a case of old style Kathak taleem at the Habitat Centre. Her control over rhythm makes possible all those details of neat arrivals on the Sama, and the Upaj possibilities that show a dancer's talent.”