Prof Rita Ganguly was under the aegis of eight renowned maestros before she came into the fold of Begum Akhtar in the early 1960s. Unreservedly propelled towards academic and artistic pursuits by her father Dr KL Ganguly, an eminent litterateur and editor of the daily, National Herald. Born in Lucknow, she was trained in dhrupad by Gopeshwar Bandyopadhyay, and graduated with honours in music & dance from Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan. Thereafter, she secured two national scholarships, and trained in Kathakali with the legendary Ashan Kunju Kurup and Ashan Chandu Pannikar, coveting the unique honour of becoming the first woman to perform at Shastha Temple in Kerala. Subsequently, she trained in Bharatanatyam with Rukmini Devi at Kalakshetra. And new dimensions were added to her repertoire as she got closely associated with Martha Graham, the diva of modern dance, the Kathak maestro Shambhu Maharaj, and again became a recipient of national scholarship in music to train with Mallika-e-Thumri Siddheshwari Devi of Banaras. Soon after, she joined the faculty of National School of Drama, pioneered a course in ‘Movement and Mime’, and conducted Indian Classical Theatre Appreciation courses at National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Australia, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in England, and Tower Hall Theatre in Colombo.
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