In the death of veteran guru of Kathak and choreography, Maya Rao, at midnight between August 31 and September 1, 2014, in Bangalore’s Ramaiah Hospital due to a massive heart attack, an era comes to an end. An era of graciousness in dance. Gurus like her are not made anymore.
Born in Bangalore on May 2, 1928, Rao helped revive the fortunes of fallen and faded classical dance forms of India. That she brought Kathak to South India in a big way, is known. But that she was India’s first and only properly trained abroad (in Moscow, no less) choreographer of first-generation, non-gharana artistes, is less known today when everyone who moves a limb is a choreographer.
She was a prime scholarship student of Shambhu Maharaj, who once called her “encyclopaedia from South” because she helped him structure and codify Kathak items and notations. Her contemporaries are Kumudini Lakhia and Uma Sharma. She came from a highly educated Saraswat Brahmin family of Konkan region that had nothing to do with dance, so she learnt the art form, surreptitiously, only to become one of its best proponents.
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With her musician husband Nataraj, she strode large on the art scene of India, making numerous dance-drama productions of which she was a master. A mistress of muse and master of art, she was a humble person and did not try to impress anyone with her high education, knowledge and research into literary and poetic aspects of dance. A well-read all rounded artiste, she was a mentor to many and mother to all who came in contact with her. She put Bangalore on world dance map and will remain its leading exponent.
She is survived by her dancer-daughter Madhu (Kiran) Nataraj, who has followed in her mother’s footsteps, dancing and choreographing.
Many awards came Rao’s way but her real reward lies in training thousands of students who will now carry forward her work. Two definitive biographies have been penned on her and a few films have had her as subject. She remains amongst the last colossus of Indian classical dance traditions which she also helped make contemporary. Guru Maya Rao will be much missed by the dance fraternity.
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(The author is a noted dance historian-scholar and editor of “Attendance”.)