GOPAL, RAM. RHYTHM IN THE HEAVENS. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. SECKER AND WARBURG. LONDON, 1957

FIRST EDITION. BLUE BOARDS., ILLUS. SOME OCCASIONAL FOXING TO EPS., SPINCE SUNNED O.W. VERY NICE COPY

INSCRIBED

                          12th Sept. 1959

To      
   my dear friend
         mrs. Craig to one
of her "daughtes" from + by
one of her dancing sons - In
memory, friendship + my love
                            Ram Gopal




Bissano Ram Gopal OBE was an Indian dancer and choreographer who performed mostly as a soloist and toured extensively throughout his lengthy career.                                    























































Ram Gopal
Classical Indian dancer who introduced the west to the ethos and discipline of his homeland's traditional art
Naseem Khan
Sun 12 Oct 2003 21.42 EDT
When the Indian dancer Ram Gopal, who has died at what is believed to have been 85, brought his company to London's Aldwych Theatre in 1939, they were lauded to the skies. People flocked to the theatre and the run had to be extended.

They were drawn not only by Ram's singular beauty and talent, but by the work itself. There had been some western versions of so-called Indian, or oriental, dance - mystical undulations with incense - and the individual creative dance crafted by the equally brilliant Uday Shankar (elder brother of Ravi) some years before. But Ram's work was faithful to the pure discipline, technique and ethos of Indian classical dance that had come down over millennia.

A distinctive figure in his silk turbans and marvellous jewellery, he cut a dash across the stage of world dance, but he also started to open out a deeper appreciation of Indian classical dance traditions, far away from undulations and incense.

However, these were not transported wholesale from India. Ram was shrewd enough to realise that western audiences would be daunted by an unadulterated classical repertoire. So he created short, spectacular items drawn from Kathakali, the strong, monumental dance from Kerala, but without the traditional make-up and clothes. Costumes, staging and lighting were all meticulously considered and beautifully carried through. He interspersed his own pieces with music and other folk and classical styles. And - most notably - he preceded each one with an explanation; even Mahatma Gandhi, he reported, had admitted to being at sea without one.

The child of an Indian lawyer father and Burmese mother, Ram had been drawn to dance from childhood. Despite paternal opposition, he had managed to learn Kathakali.

By the time he returned to the west after the war, he had added the great style Bharat Natyam to his repertoire, as well as Kathak. The triumph continued, and fruitful events occurred, such as the work he created with the later prima ballerina Dame Alicia Markova. In subsequent years, he toured widely with his company, but they never managed to create the kind of long-term base that Ram had hoped for.

A number of attempts were made to start dance schools in Britain (the last of which, tucked away behind London's King's Road, I attended) but they were impeded by Ram's distaste for dull and prudent long-term management. Today, things might have been different. But, at that time, Indian dancers were seen as gorgeous and exotic visitors rather than a local and valued resource, and the opportunity was missed.

Ram's own volatility may not have been good for managing dance schools, but it was part of his charm. He was vivid, generous and unpredictable. When money was around, he spent it lav ishly. His friends, and those in distress, could be sure of instant sympathy.

On one occasion, a woman, in hospital and anxious about her prospects, was visited unexpectedly by Ram. He had motored specially down to Brighton to collect another friend, who had had a similar operation and was clearly thriving. "Look at her! Doesn't she look well? So that's what you can be," he said triumphantly. His occasional startling generosity was balanced by a formidable temper when crossed, and lanced by a sharp wit that loved to deflate the pompous.

Ironically, his impact was lessened by his status as a pioneer. His stature called for more active recognition than mere entries in dance history books, but neither the times nor his own character encouraged it. In 1999, he was awarded the OBE, and given the coveted title of Pandit by the Indian government, but both these honours - greatly as they pleased him - came when he was long past his dancing prime. Having conquered the stages of the west, he lived out his old age in a nursing home in Norbury, south London, cared for by a few devoted aficionados.

No one can be quite sure of Ram's age. His passport put his year of birth as 1917, but contemporaries insist that events show it must have been nearer to 1912. "I always say, by God and the Bible," he would say when taxed directly, "over 21." The ambiguity was fundamental, and caused as much by mischief as vanity.

During the 1960s, he was briefly married to Edith Alexander, who predeceased him.

· Bisano Ram Gopal, dancer, born November 20 1917; died October 12 2003.

Ram Gopal, a great Indian dancer of the 20th century, passed away on Sunday in a nursing home in Norbury, South London. The New York Times and The Guardian carried glowing obituaries on the dancer, who, along with Uday Shankar, was among the first to enthuse the West about Indian classical dance. While Shankar was a modernist, who tried to blend the classical arts with new balletic choreography, Ram Gopal was mainly a classical soloist whose innovations for the modern proscenium stage are still in vogue.

Ram Gopal presented Indian dance at famous international venues like Jacob’s Pillow (USA) and Edinburgh and wrote autobiography Rhythms in the Heavens in 1957. He danced with Mrinalini Sarabhai in Bangalore, toured with Kumudini Lakhia, and was named a fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1990. In 1999, he received the Order of the British Empire. Briefly married to Edith Alexander, who died in 1969, he leaves no heir.

Ram Gopal: the legend     

Ram Gopal will be forever remembered not only as a great dancer but as the one who brought to the notice of the world the beauty and grandeur of Indian classical styles, remembers Leela Ramanathan 

Ram Gopal was born in Bangalore. His father was a Rajput barrister and his mother, a Burmese lady of extraordinary beauty. He was a born dancer and even as a child he was interested in interpreting ancient Indian myths and legends through movements and gestures. He persuaded his father to let him take lessons in dancing, and once without the permission of his father, he danced at the annual garden party of the Maharajah of Mysore, who finally persuaded Ram Copal's angry father to let him be trained as a dancer. After this there was no stopping him. 

He learnt Bharathanatyam from the great masters - the late Meenakshi Sundaram Pillar, Muthukumaran Pillai and Kathakali from Kunji Kurup and Chandu Panickar and Kathak from Sohanlal and Bowri Prasad.

Ram Gopal will be for ever remembered not only as a great dancer but as one who brought to the notice of the world the beauty and grandeur of Indian classical styles through his recitals.

Keen attention to technique, artistic presentation, perfect interpretation and purity of style characterised his dancing. Cyril Beaumont writing about Ram Gopal's dancing says “what impresses one most about Ram Gopal's dancing is the manner in which he is able to assimilate the characteristics of the four schools of technique so completely different in style, costume and mood.”

Like Uday Shankar who was ‘discovered’ by Anna Pavlova, Ram Gopal was brought into limelight by an American dancer La Meri who took him with her on a world tour. While he loved all the styles of classical Indian Dance - Kathak, Kathakali and Manipuri, he liked the most the Pandanallur style of Bharathanatyam of Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, for its ‘inherent dignity and precision.’ His rendering of Natanam Adinar and his choreographic compositions - the Golden Garuda and Sandhya Nritya, are unforgettable. As he danced on stage he became the spirit of the dance itself, dynamic and beautiful.

For a short while before he moved to England, he ran an Academy for dancers in his home town Bangalore where he invited already trained dancers to participate in his shows and be further trained by him. I was one of the privileged ones and had the pleasure of being 'honed' by him. Being a dancer himself he was able to improve my footwork, posture, movements and gestures. 1 had to work hard but I enjoyed the discipline and concentration. He was a good, though very strict teacher. Off the stage he was warm and affectionate to all of us.

It is impossible to list his performances, but wherever he danced - and he danced all over the world - he was hailed as a ‘dancer par excellence’ who had created an awareness of India's rich heritage of classical dancers as no other dancer had.

Countries have showered awards galore on him culminating with the British O B E, in 1999. A number of books have also been written about him. The Central Sangeet Natak Akademi of India had made him a fellow but neither the Indian Government, nor the Government of Karnataka (for he was born and brought up in Bangalore) had recognised his true worth, although the Karnataka Nritya Kala Parishath - a guild of dancers from all over Karnataka conferred on him the title ‘Nritya Kala Choodamani’ before he left India. Ram Gopal was never very concerned about awards and honours. His only wish was to preserve and propagate classical dance and as he used to say in his inimitable way “awaken the Nataraja in each dancer.”  

WITH THE passing away of Ram Gopal in the U.K., the dance world loses one of the last of the old guard of dancers connected with the story of dance revival in India in the 1930s and later. Rukmini Devi Arundel, Balasaraswati, Uday Shankar, Madame Menaka have all become part of history. Of the contemporaries of Ram Gopal, only Guru U. S. Krishna Rao, who also hails from Bangalore, is amidst us. And Mrinalini Sarabhai is a much younger dancer with whom Ram Gopal danced duets enchanting audiences all over the world.

Krishna Rao has recounted how as an avid young tennis player, he first made the acquaintance of Ram Gopal playing in an adjoining court in Bangalore. He also became the drummer for Ram Gopal's at-the-time nondescript dance comprising some footwork, and the two travelled on a bicycle to perform at various venues. In 1939, invited to Paris, Ram Gopal went with Sohanlal, Kathak dancer, and in the early Forties, he discovered Guru Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai of Pandanallur under whom he began his Bharatanatyam journey as a student. Of the two famous male dancers of the time, Uday Shankar became a Modern Dance explorer, while Ram Gopal stuck to the classical forms - both stunning performers carrying the message of Indian dance to the West.

Pictures of Ram Gopal turned out in the briefest of skin-tight shorts, with necklaces adorning his magnificent torso and an exotic headgear crowning the dignified head have become one of the indelible dance images. Ram Gopal's dance transcended gender and regional boundaries. Turned out in exotic costumes, in all probability designed by Western garment experts, Ram Gopal's dance represented not so much a form like Bharatanatyam, Kathak or Kathakali, as an essential Indianness he was trying to convey to western audiences. Strangely, even with his love for the classical vocabulary, he chose to make his home in the West and not in India - which he visited regularly. Perhaps the different Western context gave his creative imagination freedom without tying him down to the orthodox presentation conventions associated with each traditional form.

Dancers he associated with speak of him with great affection. Kumudini Lakhia has always maintained that her sensitivity to how classical dance can sculpt space, came from years spent touring all over the West as a member of Ram Gopal's performing troupe. M. K. Saroja, senior Bharatanatyam dancer reminiscing on her close association with Ram Gopal, thanks to her Guru Muthu Kumara Pillai also teaching Ram Gopal at a point of time, and her husband the late Mohan Khokar's friendship with Ram, talks of how he stayed for long periods in their home. When he left, he never forgot to express in handsome fashion his gratitude for her hospitality and being so well looked after in his old age.

He was a man who did not mince words. I recollect how during one of his later visits to India, a journalist made a passing, if somewhat malicious, reference to his black wig in his write up. Roundly cursing the writer's lack of taste, Ram Gopal said that such information only engaged the mind of those who knew little about the subject of dance.

My last memories of Ram Gopal are of a very frail old man, resplendently clad in brocades and turban sitting slumped on his wheel chair, watching a dance performance in Bangalore. Age might have sapped his physical vitality - but not the mental resilience.

He died on Sunday the 12th of October, quietly in sleep and at peace with the world, in London, one of his many homes in the world. A world he dominated from the time he stepped on stage at behest of the Yuvaraj of Mysore, in 1928, and continued to rule as India's Nijinsky, until the sixties.

Bissano Ram Gopal was born in Bangalore on 12th November to a Burmese mother and a Rajput father. His parental home - the Torquay Castle - in Benson town, was a palatial mansion with swimming pool and tennis courts, befitting the stature of his barrister father but Ram was not interested in legalities of life but more in the mysteries of movement.

To say he was a born dancer would be stating the obvious. Ram Gopal was India's first truly international-level, classical dancer. In his statuesque body and poses, Bharatanatyam sat very well, although by his own admission "my left side is Bharatanatyam and the right side is Kathakali and in my legs lie Kathak". He was indeed trained in all three principal styles in vogue then (Orissi had not even been "discovered" until 1954 or officially established until 1958).


Trained in Bharatanatyam by two giants of the time - Guru Meenakshisundaram Pillai and Guru Kattumanarkoil Muthukumaran Pillai - and in Kathakali by Kunjukurup and Vallathol Narayanan Menon himself presiding at Kalamandalam. For Kathak, he was trained by Guru Jailal and Sohanlal. Ram was one of the first to team up with women dancers like Tara Chaudhri, Shevanti, Mrinalini Sarabhai, Retna Mohini- Bresson, M K Saroja and later with Kathak dancers like Kumudini Lakhia. He created travelling dance companies the likes of which the world, especially Europe, had not seen although he gave credit for his inspiration to the other light of his times, Uday Shankar, whose example had preceded Ram's by a decade.

La Meri, the American ethnic-dancer "discovered" his true potential and took him on in 1936 as a dancing partner on his first tour and since then Ram traveled the world many times over. Polish critic Tadeus Zelinski called him the "Nijinsky of India" while Cecil B De Mille introduced him to Sol Hurok. Feted and fawned upon, he was like an Indian god come alive. Ram Gopal's magic lasted far beyond his few active dancing years he had. He performed in some of best-known theatres of the world, including The Grand Theatre, Opera House in Poland; the Palais du Louvre and Muisee Guimet in Paris, the Aldwych in London and the Town Hall in Stockholm where the Nobel Prize Ceremony is conducted.

He also immortalized himself through two films made on him: "Aum Shiva" and "Ram" by the famous French filmmaker Lamorisse. David Lean was planning a film based on Ram's life and the script and shooting were in progress when Lean died. The last record of Ram in India is captured on a digital film by Ashish Khokar in 1998.

Ram Gopal leaves no student of merit but that's because of my theory (and study) that all great masters don't have students, only followers or copycats. The lives of several masters like Uday Shankar, Ram Gopal, Bala, Sitara Devi, M K Saroja, Vyjayanthimala, Kamala Laxman and many more (including top musicians) shows that great performing artistes need not necessarily be great gurus or teachers. Their art is a gift of the gods, which begins and ends with them. Ram Gopal is no more but lives on in mind and eye of those who saw him stride this planet. He was the king of dance - Nataraja indeed!

Till her death five years ago, French patroness Claude Lamorisse, looked after him. Pamela Cullen was his support in London during his end years when he lived in an old-age home. That India did not even bestow a national honour on him shows what India is about (the Sangeet Natak's belatedly made him a Fellow in the late eighties), although the Queen of England gave him an (OBE) Order of the British Empire, a few years ago. But for this king of the dance world, the beauty of movement and its manifestation was its own award. With Ram, a whole era has ended. Hey Ram!

If you ask performing arts historians about the first generation of Indian dancers with a global name, they will easily say Uday Shankar, in spite of the fact that he went to become a painter and returned as dancer. Keeping Uday Shankar aside, there were several others who had dance in their blood from the very beginning. This is the story of one such born dancer.

Painters sketched him, sculptors chiselled little figurines of him in movement, the press across the world raved about his performances. They hailed him as “India’s answer to Nijinsky” in the earlier part of the 20th century. From London to New York, Hollywood to Japan, Ram Gopal was one of the earliest to put India on the world dance map. To Indian classical dancers from the flower-power generation of the ’70s, he was someone who achieved unimaginable heights for an Indian dancer. To the current generation of dancers, he is a forgotten entity. Who was Ram Gopal and what was his story?



Beessano Ram Gopal was born on November 20, 1917, in Bangalore to a Rajput lawyer father and a Burmese mother. Despite parental opposition, he took up dance as a profession after he saw the palace dancers at the famous Mysore Dussehra celebrations as a child. Seeing his enthusiasm for dance, he was greatly patronised by the prince of Mysore. By the end of his teens, Ram was already the most sought-after dancer in the Mysore State.

He went ahead to take lessons in Kathak from Guru Sohan Lal of the Jaipur Gharana, who was settled in Bangalore. Alongside, he began visiting Kerala and training in Kathakali from Guru Kunju Kurup at the Kalamandalam set up by Vallathol Narayana Menon. He and Mrinalini Swaminathan (now Sarabhai) took lessons in Bharatanatyam under the legendary Nattuvanar Meenakshisundaram Pillai. He took elements from each of these dance forms and created his own unique style, which became extremely popular with the western audiences as "Oriental Dance".

Seeing one of his successful performances, the famous Russian dancer La Meri, who was touring south India, invited him to join her entourage in 1936. What would have otherwise been an exciting tour ended with an abrupt halt in Japan. La Meri could not digest the rave reviews and popularity Ram received and decided to dump him midway through the tour. Ram struggled his way back to Bangalore.

Establishing his own dance company, he began experimenting with choreography. Several dancers like Tara Choudhry and Shevanti joined his Dance Company. Even the Javanese dancer Retna Mohini, who later married the famous photographer Henri Cartier Bresson, was a part of Ram Gopal’s dance company. South India’s biggest music orchestra, The Saraswati Orchestra, with over 25 members, headed by MS Natarajan, provided music to Ram Gopal’s dance productions in those years.
 
Tara Chaudhri and Ram Gopal, The dancing couple, 1945.


Invitations came from far and wide. His first dance tours to Europe began soon after. In London, Glasgow, Ireland and elsewhere, Ram stunned his audiences. Such was the importance give to him in London that he was invited to perform at the inauguration of the Indian section at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1947. A silent video clipping from the British Pathe archives shows us Ram and his dancers performing what they titled Hindu Dances. In this clip one can see the dancers from his group Shevanti, Rajeshwar and others.

Indian Dancer (1947)
British Pathé



Ram Gopal who idolised the great Vaslav Nijinsky as his hero finally managed to meet him in 1948. Nijinsky had come to attend Ram’s performance and the two met in the greenroom. Ram wrote about this historic meeting with a great sense of awe. In 1955, Ram was also the first Indian dancer to perform at the South Bank Center. Kathak dancer Kumudini Lakhia was a part of this historic tour.

Vassal Nijinsky with Ram Gopal


In the mid-1950s, Ram had a brief stint in Hollywood. He played minor roles in movies like The Purple Plain and William Dieterle's Elephant Walk for which he also choreographed the dance sequences. In The Purple Plain, a British war film set in Burma towards the end of World War II, Ram plays a small role as Mr Phang. He shared the screen with Gregory Peck, who plays a Royal Air Force pilot and the central character of the film. Despite being set in Burma, the film was actually shot in Ceylon. In Elephant Walk, a British film about a rubber plantation during the Malayan Emergency, Ram played the supervisor of the plantation.

He returned to India and eventually migrated to Europe to settle down. Almost none of the dancers of his company survive today. Tara Chaudhry died unsung last September in Karachi and Shevanti earlier this year on June 11. Both his occasional collaborators Kathak veteran Kumudini Lakhia and Bharatanatyam diva Mrinalini Sarabhai live in Ahmedabad.

An interview taken when he was frail and old, then living in Venice, is available in three parts. In this, Ram speaks of his initial days in India, his tours across the world as a dancer.







Ram spent his final days in an old age nursing home in London. He donated a few of his costumes, including the iconic The Eagle Dance piece, to the Victoria and Albert museum. Made of soft leather and covered in pure gold leaf, this costume is a sight to see for anyone who visits the museum. It is said that Ram had a special case designed to carry each of the parts of this costume separately when he went on international tours. Several images of Ram seen often ostentatiously dressed, shot by legendary photographers like George Hurrell, Houston Rogers and Cecil Beaton, continue to capture public imagination. A portrait of his is housed in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Ram wrote his autobiography Rhythm in the Heavens in the early 1950s. He was also a subject of several early books on Indian dance. All of them are out of print and out of circulation today.

For someone whose contribution to Indian classical dance is undeniable, he got pretty little from the state as acknowledgement. Neither did successive governments do much for him, nor did the classical dance community in India take up his cause. Today he is a forgotten figure in the world of dance. But in the 20th century history of Indian classical dance, Ram Gopal will be remembered, as its first iconic superstar.

Ram Gopal, the legendary dancer, was born at the mansion-like Torquay Castle, Benson Town (now the YMCA), Bangalore, to a Burmese mother and a Rajput father on November 20, 1912. He was given the additional name Bissano (born on 20th, bees in Hindi). Drawn to dance very early in life, Ram’s debut was an impromptu performance at the Mysore Palace at the behest of the prince of Mysore and there was no looking back.

Ram’s barrister father did not welcome the idea of a dancer son but his mother supported his passion and the Prince of Mysore was impressed enough to become Ram’s patron. Ram went on to learn a smattering of styles as was the vogue those days but mastered only Bharatanatyam. He learnt Kathakali from Guru Kunju Kurup at Kalamandalam while Vallathol Narayanan Menon himself presided there. He also learnt Bharatanatyam from two stalwarts of that time—Guru Meenakshisundaram Pillai and Guru Kattumanarakoil Muthukumaran Pillai. Ram Gopal further added to his repertoire Kathak, which he learned from Gurus Jailal and Sohanlal.

So Ram Gopal received extensive training in three prevalent styles of those days. He is said to have once remarked, ‘my left side is Bharatanatyam and the right side is Kathakali, in my legs lies Kathak.’ It would be accurate to call him India’s first international classical dancer, for it was indeed Ram Gopal who was the first one to present the variety of Indian classical dance styles and their rich vocabulary to a Western audience.


It was actually his partnering with La Meri, the American ethnic dancer, that brought him to the notice of the world in 1936. She took him on an extended tour of Burma, the Malay States, Penang, Singapore and Japan. In Japan, where Ram and La Meri parted company, he met the Polish critic Alexander Janta, who became his guide, manager and impresario, and they landed in America together. Travelling through Hollywood to New York, he was introduced to the American impresario Sol Hurok by Cecil B. De Mille. Sol Hurok arranged a season for Ram, much in the way he had arranged one for Uday Shankar earlier. By the time Ram left for Europe, his feet were firmly established in three continents.

Later Ram toured the world many times over. He received rave reviews from Western critics who called his dance an 'unearthly beauty', another called it 'unearthly physical control' while yet another wrote that 'to see him is to realise the essence of dancing'. The Polish critic Tadeus Zelinski called him 'the Nijinsky of India'.

Ram was the first to team up with women dancers such as Tara Chaudhri, Shevanti, Mrinalini Sarabhai, Retna Mohini (wife of the young and upcoming photographer Henri Cartier Bresson), M.K. Saroja and Kathak dancer Kumudini Lakhia. He created travelling dance companies, the likes of which the Western world had never seen. But he gave credit for his inspiration to the other leading light of his times—Uday Shankar, whose work had preceded Ram’s by a decade. There was a difference though. Uday Shankar had formulated and presented his own non-classical style, whereas Ram Gopal presented only a classical repertoire.


He danced at some of the most famous and reputed theatres of the world—The Grand Theatre, Opera House in Poland, the Palais Du Louvre and Musée Guimet in Paris, the Aldwych in London and the Town Hall in Stockholm (where the Nobel Prize Ceremony is conducted).

One thing led to another. His friends, and their friends in turn, helped build Ram’s outreach. Mercedes de Costa (after whom the car is named) came to Paris from America to introduce Ram to Gertrude Stein. In her turn, Miss Stein introduced Ram to several leading personalities of the theatre world, one of them being the prima ballerina of Russia, Princess Krasinky Kshesinskaya. Kshesinskaya showed Ram around her studio and also included him in the Gala de Dance presented at the Louvre to raise funds for Vaslav Nijinsky. Ram later said, 'I realised then how important security is for artists, especially as we creative folks are prone to squandering more than we earn.'

Ram Gopal was very concerned that there should be no monotony or repetition in his presentation, something he observed and learnt from Uday Shankar’s. Even while touring India, he had realised that classical dance presentations were not widely enjoyed as the audience could not understand the language of the songs that accompanied the dance or even the meaning of the hastas (hand gestures). He worked on making each item in his repertoire very precise and compact, so the item conveyed what it had to without becoming overdrawn. He also paid special attention to costumes, reproducing for stage what he saw and understood from Indian paintings and sculptures. In the 1940s, Ram met Mahatma Gandhi several times. And it was the Mahatma who suggested that he provide some kind of an explanation, an introduction to each piece before it was danced. This process worked in India, so Ram applied it in the West too. Ram also interspersed his dance presentations with short musical items. This helped in introducing Indian instruments to a Western audience.


Ram Gopal’s magic lasted far beyond his active dancing years. He immortalised himself through two films made on him—Aum Shiva and Ram. David Lean was planning a film on the life and dance of Ram Gopal. Unfortunately, Lean died while the script and the shooting of the film were in progress.

Ram published two books—Indian Dancing in 1951 and his autobiography, Rhythms in the Heavens, in 1957. He also briefly opened two dance schools—one in Bangalore before he moved to England, and the other, Academy for Indian Dance and Music, in London in 1962. His later years were spent in London, Venice and the South of France.

After a not very successful attempt to settle down in his native Bangalore, Ram Gopal lived out the last three years of his life in South London. His stay was sponsored by the family of the late Claude Lamorrise, French patroness and longtime friend, The Croydon Council and the Royal Ballet Benevolent Fund. He died on Sunday, October 12, 2003 at the Norbury Care Home. Pamela Cullen, another friend, had looked after him in his last years. She was also the executor of 'The Ram Gopal Estate'. For his services to dance, Ram Gopal received the Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship in 1990 and an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1999.

ne of the most celebrated exponents of the classical Indian dance, and the Asian Music Circle, which promoted a recital given in the Lesser Free Trade Hall on Saturday, gave Manchester another opportunity of studying his art. Whether moving fluidly and languorously in the temple dances of meditation and devotion, or dancing with ever-increasing speed and complexity as in the Krishna Thillana, Ram Gopal remains the complete artist.

He also spent some time in talking about the meaning of the symbolism in the dances. The classical Indian dance is one of the most ancient arts, practised continually for over five thousand years with an intense discipline that demands seven or eight years training to acquire the several thousand “mudras” or gestures which are its vocabulary.

Ram Gopal and Alicia Markova performing the traditional Indian love poem Radha Krishna, 1960.
Ram Gopal and Alicia Markova performing the traditional Indian love poem Radha Krishna, 1960. Photograph: Henry Bush/ANL/REX/Shutterstock
The power of the interpreter to re-create by movement all things in heaven and on earth is used to show us Rama the Hunter; surrounded by the beauties of the forest we see the lotus bud unfolding on the pool, the tiny fish swimming in the streamlet, the bees sipping nectar, deer leaping gaily in play – all this is delicately and hauntingly brought to life by the precise and exacting technique. In the Sandhya Nritta Moorti, Lord Siva presides over the setting sun, meditates among the stars, the winds, and the rippling waves, and ends in the velvet dark of night. For the Indian dancer, Ram Gopal explained, the first lesson is humility, coupled paradoxically with a pride in being the repository of such ancient tradition; and with humility goes subjection to the disciplines of the masters.

It is this humility, pride, and discipline which produces the eloquent and noble dancing of Ram Gopal, an aspect of art “born not for amusement but to train the mind and to attune the spirit in the Almighty.”

Bissano Ram Gopal OBE (20 November 1912[1] – 12 October 2003) was an Indian dancer and choreographer who performed mostly as a soloist and toured extensively throughout his lengthy career. A modernist, he blended the classical Indian dance with balletic choreography,[2] and along with Uday Shankar was among the first to showcase Indian classical dance in the West starting in the 1930s,[3] Polish critic Tadeusz Zelenski called him "the Nijinsky of India".

As a choreographer, he is most known for his productions, Legend of the Taj Mahal, Dance of the Setting Sun and Dances of India.[4] He is also noted for "Radha-Krishna", his collaboration with British[5] ballerina Dame Alicia Markova, in 1960.[6]


Contents
1 Early life and training
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 Works
5 References
6 External links
Early life and training
Gopal was born in Bangalore, India. He was named Bissano, being born on 20 November ( Bees = 20 in Hindi ). He had a Burmese mother and a Rajput father who was a barrister.[2][4] They lived in a mansion called Torquay Castle. His grandmother was a well known dancer. Drawn to dance early on in his life, he learned Kathakali from Guru Kunju Kurup and Chandu Panickar. Once he danced at the annual garden party of the Maharaja of Mysore without his father's permission, but the Maharaja persuaded his father to allow him to receive further dance training.[7]

While in this early forties, he discovered Guru Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai of Pandanallur style under whom he started learning Bharatanatyam, followed by Muthukumaran Pillai;[8] he also learned Kathak from Sohanlal and Bowri Prasad and even Manipuri dance, all of which he assimilated into his choreographies in the coming decades.[7]

Career
He was invited to the United States by La Meri, an American dancer who specialised in non-Western forms of dance to tour with her through Asia in the 1930s. He made his solo debut in New York City on 1 May 1938, at the 46th Street Theatre.[6] In 1939, he was invited to Paris, where he went with Kathak dancer, Sohanlal.[8] and in the same year he made his London debut at the Aldwych Theatre to immediate fame and went on to meet not just Queen Mary, but also made friends with leading figures of the ballet.[4] He returned to India with Ensa during the World War II.[4] After the war, he returned and noted dancer, Nijinsky came to "inspect him" in 1948.[4]

He toured extensively as a soloist and with his company both before and after World War II, and soon they were known for their costumes, staging and lighting.[2] He appeared at the New York Golden Anniversary International Dance Festival at NYC's City Center in 1948 where he represented India, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires in 1954 and Edinburgh Festival in 1956.[6] He collaborated with ballerina Dame Alicia Markova to create a duet "Radha-Krishna" in 1960, based on Hindu mythology, in which she danced as Radha, while he danced as Krishna. Today their collaboration is commemorated at the National Portrait Gallery, London where her bronze bust stands next to his full-length portrait by Feliks Topolski.[4][6][9] In the later years, he also danced with Mrinalini Sarabhai in Bangalore, and toured with Kumudini Lakhia.[3] Another successful dance partnership was with the young and talented Tara Chaudhri whom Ram was very fond of. Dance critic, Cyril Beaumont editor of "Dance Journal", wrote about his dancing, "what impresses one most about Ram Gopal's dancing is the manner in which he is able to assimilate the characteristics of the four schools of technique so completely different in style, costume and mood."[7]

He also danced in the Mumbai school run by the Austrian expressionist dancer Hilde Holger, with whom he remained friends and collaborated with her in their experimental dance style pieces.[10]

In Kay Ambrose's book published in 1950, "Classical Dances and Costumes of India," the book is introduced by Ram Gopal, with foreword by Arnold Haskell containing 53 illustrations from photographs and many drawings by the author. In this introduction is included a letter Ram Gopal wrote to Kay Ambrose from Bangalore, his birthplace in February 1942. The book has many photos and illustrations of Ram Gopal performing these classical dances.

He published Indian Dancing in 1951, and his autobiography Rhythms in the Heavens in 1957;[3] he also opened two dance schools for a short while, first in Bangalore before moving to England and later "Academy of Indian Dance and Music" in London in 1962. In his later years he lived in London, Venice and the South of France.[6]

The French filmmaker Claude Lamorisse made two films about him: "Aum Shiva" and "Ram".[11] Gopal featured in the Indian-born British documentary filmmaker Sarah Erulkar's short Lord Siva Danced (1947).

He received an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to dance in 1999,[2] and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama in 1990.[3]

Personal life
During the 1960s, while living in Chelsea, London he was briefly married to Edith Alexander, though the marriage ended only a few years later, with her death. The couple had no children.[4]

He died in Norbury Care Home in Croydon, South London, UK,[12][13] where he spent the last three years of his life after unsuccessfully attempting to settle down in his native Bangalore. His stay was sponsored by the Lamorrise family, Croydon Council and the Royal Ballet Benevolent Fund. After cremation his ashes were scattered on the grounds of Lamorrise family chateau in South of France where, he had spent a decade as a house guest of Mrs Claude Lamorrise.[14] Pam Cullen, former cultural advisor to the Indian High Commission and Gopal's close friend, became the executor of the "Ram Gopal Estate" and donated some of his costume pieces, especially ornate headgears to V&A Museum, London.[14][15]

Works
Indian dancing, by Ram Gopal, Serozh Dadachanji. Phoenix House, 1951.
Ram Gopal: rhythm in the heavens : an autobiography, by Ram Gopal. Secker and Warburg, 1957


Ram Gopal - SADAA 1
Ram Gopal
Dancer Ram Gopal first came to the UK to perform in 1939 as a young man. He
and his company played to packed houses at the Aldwych and Vaudeville
Theatres in London in July and November of that year, having appeared already
in Warsaw, Paris and the USA. His performances gained glowing reviews in The
Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, Cavalcade and Ballet. The audiences
included the leading ballet dancers of the day, Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin,
as well as artists Kay Ambrose and Feliks Topolski, who sketched in the wings
as Gopal danced.
Pandit Ram Gopal was born in Bangalore, India on 20 November 1912. The son
of a Rajput lawyer father and a Burmese mother, Gopal was a natural dancer
from an early age. As a young boy, he was mesmerised by the music at a
Kathak performance in the local town hall where a troupe was performing.
Although his father disapproved, the young Ram Gopal travelled to Kerala to
undertake classical training in 'kathakali' at the Kerala Kalamandalam School
under dance maestro, Guru Vallathol. Gopal's first public performance was at a
party held by the Yuvaraja of Mysore at the Lalita Mahal, or palace, in front of a
thousand guests including the British Viceroy. It was the Yuvaraja who later
asked Gopal to join a troupe of classical dancers from Mysore State to tour
Europe for the first time.
The performance at the palace marked the beginning of a life dedicated to
dance. Gopal made an enviable reputation for himself through his god-like
appearance and litheness. He replicated the dances of the Hindu gods and
performed in local temples, street performances and participated in folk dancing
in villages across the state. He had his costumes designed and tailored them in
a similar style to those worn by the gods Shiva, Krishna and Vishnu.
Ram Gopal's pre-war tours in the UK demonstrated his immense prowess as a
dancer in this classical style, and in addition, he brought with him dancers
trained in both Kathakali and Kathak, as well as in Javanese and Balinese
dance forms. His programmes of that time consisted of a variety of short items
especially designed for Western audiences, with classical dance pieces, folk
dances, creative dance choreography by Gopal and musical interludes. The
musicians too were classically trained in India. By all accounts, the audiences
were stunned with the beauty, grandeur, detail, costuming and dance technique
which they saw. In 1956,dance historian and author Cyril Beaumont, wrote of
these performances,'... his initial London recitals in 1939 first opened our eyes to
the varied styles and rich vocabulary of Indian dance...'
After spending the war years in India, Ram Gopal returned to the UK in 1951
with a new company and further training in Kathak and the classical style of
Ram Gopal - SADAA 2
Bharata Natyam. His performances were as popular with the audiences as
before the war, and the company toured various venues in the UK in the early
1950s,and later performed in Wales and Ireland. Over the next fifteen years,
Gopal and his company were in much demand throughout the world, and toured
in Europe, the USA, and India.
Gopal had cherished a vision of East-West collaboration in dance since his first
successful London performances in 1939,and spoke frequently of the ways he
believed ballet and Indian dance could work together. Gopal's diverse cultural
experiences enabled him to feel content at being 'westernised'. He believed by
having insight into both worlds, he bridged the gap between eastern and
western knowledge and experiences. This gave him a sense of harmony of
being a complete human being.
For many years, Gopal had hoped to establish a permanent centre for Indian
dance and culture in London, and did work closely in the 1960s with the
Harlequin Ballet Dance Company in London, teaching folk dances and training
particular dancers. Gopal continued in his efforts to found a 'School of Classical
Indian Dancing' in London, placing a full-page advertisement in The Dancing
Times each month between October 1962 and September 1963. However,
nothing really came of it, as Gopal had no organisation or administrative base to
back his efforts.
However in 1960,Gopal was finally able to work with ballerina Alicia Markova,
something they had both wanted to do since the early 1950s. Gopal
choreographed a duet titled Radha-Krishna, and gave Markova lessons in
Indian dance technique. They performed the duet as part of a longer Indian
dance programme at the Prince's Theatre, London in March 1960,and then at
Edinburgh Festival in the summer of that year.
Gopal had made a decision in the early 1950s to settle in the UK and apart from
tours and regular return visits to India; he remained here for the rest of his life.
There is no doubt that the explosion of both classical and contemporary Indian
dance performance from the 1970s onward in the UK, and the availability of
education in Indian dance that was beginning to grow owes a great debt to the
paradigm that Gopal had established. Residual orientalism was disappearing
and being replaced with a genuine interest in world culture. Due to his work and
the fascination with this art form that he had created, the parameters of Indian
cultural and artists expression were extended, and the UK welcomed artistes
such as Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan in the musical world, and classical
dancers Shanta Rao, US Krisha Rao and Chandrabhaga Devi, and Tara
Rajkumar to name but a few. The expulsion of thousands of professional Indian
peoples from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania in the later 1960s and early 1970s
and their settlement in the UK brought a new and supportive audience for Indian
Ram Gopal - SADAA 3
arts, and created a community desirous of establishing their own culture.
The present climate of South Asian dance with its conflation of both old and
new, has its roots in the dedicated work of Ram Gopal at the beginning and
middle of the last century. More than sixty years on, his role within the Indian
classical dance milieu has proved to be an innovative and influential one in
challenging the tenants of colonialism and orientalism as they appeared in
dance performance. Gopal played as key a figure on the world stage of dance
during a period of enormous international and social change, and there is no
doubt that the evidence of his influence can still be seen today.
Ram Gopal died in London, England on 12 October 2003,aged 90 years old.
This essay is based on a piece written by Ann David for SADD (SALIDAA).