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Menaka Thakkar | She is a master dancer in three
classical Indian styles - Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kuchipudi.
Now in her 65th year, Ms. Thakkar settled in Canada over 37 years
ago at the peak of her career as an international soloist. She
is credited (along with Kathak dancer Rina Singha) as having
been the first artist to introduce Indian culture to Canadian
audiences.
In
the early years Ms. Thakkar performed across Canada and soon
began to train youngsters in classical bharatanatyam. Eventually
she began creating original choreographies that were performed
in major venues across Canada. She opened the first school of
Indian dance in Canada, Nrytakala, which continues to train new
generations of dancers and formed the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company
comprised of graduates of her school.
The Menaka Thakkar Dance Company
became the first South Asian arts organization to be recognized
by the Canada Council for the Arts, thereby opening the door
to other multicultural artists to receive funding. Today, the
Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, known as MTDC, is Canada's premiere
Indian dance company. It includes up to 20 professional dancers
who have each studied with Ms. Thakkar from 16 to 26 years.
Ms. Thakkar has won many awards
and honours in her long career including an honourary doctorate
from York University, 2006 City of Toronto Face the Arts Cultural
Maverick Award for Dance, Toronto Arts Award for Performing Arts,
President's Award from Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and Tri-National
Creative Residency Award from the Canada-Mexico joint program
administered by the National Endowment for the Arts, United States.
Ms.
Thakkar has created groundbreaking choreographies since coming
to Canada which reflect both her exposure to western dance styles
and her background in classical Indian dance. She has collaborated
with many of Canada's most accomplished dancers including Claudia
Moore, Danny Grossman, William Lau, Robert Desrosiers, Patrick
Parson, Debbie Wilson and Grant Strate to create possibly some
of the first fusion pieces in Canada and group choreographies
for Indian dancers. In addition, Ms. Thakkar has also reached
out to students of ballet at the National Ballet School through
an annual residency in which she has trained ballet students
in classical bharatnatyam for the past 20 years.
Today, the legacy continues
with the formation of the new wing of MTDC for contemporary Indian
dance, which nurtures young professionals in creating choreography
and provides opportunities to work with company dancers. Ms.
Thakkar's school, Nrytakala, located in Thornhill, Ontario, annually
trains over 100 students from ages five to 18 and has graduated
close to 150 students in their junior and senior arangetrams.
Many of the graduates have gone on to develop their own dance
companies and solo careers in dance such as Winnipeg's Manohar
Dance Company, Natasha Bakht, Niharika Mohanty, and Nova Bhattacharya.
MTDC has recently developed a new wing for young audiences and
performs shows in theatres and schools in Ontario and British
Columbia annually. The Menaka Thakkar Dance Company continues
to present an annual home season in Toronto and tours nationally
every year. The MTDC dancers are rigorously trained and continuously
provided with professional development training in body conditioning
and with special choreo-labs in other kinds of dance styles to
increase their versatility as dancers.
Menaka Thakkar continues to
oversee the company and school's operations as the Artistic Director
and continues to develop uncompromising choreographies which
consistently break new ground and change the face of Indian dance
in Canada.
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