Chitresh Das

Chitresh Das (9 November 1944 – 4 January 2015) was a classical dancer of the North Indian style of Kathak. Born in Calcutta, Das was a performer, choreographer, composer and educator. He was instrumental in bringing Kathak to the US and is credited with having established Kathak amongst the Indian diaspora in America. In 1979, Das established the Chhandam School of Kathak and the Chitresh Das Dance Company in California. In 2002, he founded Chhandam Nritya Bharati in India. There were ten branches of Chhandam worldwide. Until his death in 2015, Das taught dance as a way of life, a path for attaining self-knowledge and as a service to society. Das performed in India, North America and Europe. He was known for his virtuosic footwork, rhythmic adeptness, compelling storytelling, as well as his innovation of "Kathak Yoga".

Chitresh Das was born in Calcutta, West Bengal to Nrityacharya Prohlad Das and Smt. Nilima Das. His parents founded "Nritya Bharati", one of India's first institutions for dance that housed teachers of several classical and folk styles. Prohlad Das, a dance scholar and choreographer, used traditional dance forms to express modern issues in his revolutionary work Abhyudaya (meaning "awakening") staged before Indian Independence in 1947. Das frequently cited his mother, Nilima Das, stating, "mother is the first guru". Growing up in his parents' dance school in Calcutta, Nritya Bharati, Das was surrounded by literary artists, poets, dancers, and gurus. He recalled iconic dancers such as Rukmini Devi Arundale, Uday Shankar, Balasaraswati and the legendary Shambhu Maharaj coming to visit his home. Das began his study of Kathak at age nine under Kathak guru Ram Narayan Misra, a disciple of Shambhu and Acchchan Maharaj.