The Pioneer Of Modern Dance In India : Astad Deboo
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Born into a Parsi family in Navsari, Gujarat in 1947, Astad Deboo began dancing at the tender age of six from the late Indra Kumar Mohanty and Prahlad Das.
When he moved to Mumbai for university, his life changed. In 1968, the New York-based Murray Lewis Dance Company was on a tour of India, and their performance of contemporary dance in Mumbai inspired him to pursue dance professionally.
When he moved to Mumbai for university, his life changed. In 1968, the New York-based Murray Lewis Dance Company was on a tour of India, and their performance of contemporary dance in Mumbai inspired him to pursue dance professionally.
He boarded a cargo boat from Bombay Port in 1969 bound for Europe and hitchhiked through Europe until reaching New York. There, the artist Uttara Asha Coorlawala helped him join the renowned Martha Graham Dance Company.
In 1969, Deboo was in London to perform at a fundraiser at the Chelsea Town Hall by Arabella Churchill, granddaughter of Winston Churchill. The seminal rock band, Pink Floyd, was doing a soundcheck before their performance, and Deboo improvised a dance to their music.
He went on to learn with master dancers like Pina Bausch and Alison Becker Chase. He returned to India in 1977 to study the classical dance form of Kathakali under Guru E. Krishna Panickar.
This led to his creation of a unique dance that blended Western modern dance with Indian classical dance. His breakthrough came in 1986 when he choreographed a dance piece for Maya Plisetskaya, the prima ballerina of the world-famous Bolshoi Theatre Ballet.
He collaborated with the Gundecha Brothers and M.F. Husain, as well as Pung Cholom dancers and Thang-Ta martial artists from Manipur.
Deboo also used his art to promote social causes. He was a member of the performing arts faculty at Gallaudet University in Washington DC, which specialises in education for the hard-of-hearing.
His production Road Signs was performed by a deaf dance troupe, and they toured in India in 1995. In 2005, he performed at the Annual Deaf Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, with 12 hearing-impaired female dancers.
His company also collaborated with underprivileged children from the Salaam Baalak Trust, who performed the piece Breaking Boundaries in 2009.
Astad Deboo passed away in 2020 at the age of 73.
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