Menaka thakkar biography of george

Indo-Canadian dancer, choreographer (1942–2022)

Menaka Thakkar (March 3, 1942 - February 5, 2022) was an Indo-Canadian dancer, choreographer, and teacher who specialized in Indian classical dance. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Thakkar taught and performed across Canada and around the world. She was awarded Canada's Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2013. In 2019 she was inducted into Dance Collection Danse's Dance Hall of Fame.

Early life and education

Thakkar was born in Mumbai, India, on March 3, 1942. In Mumbai, Madras, and Cuttack, she completed training in Indian classical dance (including Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Kuchipudi styles). She earned an undergraduate degree in visual arts in 1963.

Thakkar performed as a soloist in India. She travelled to Canada in 1972 to visit her brother and to perform. She decided to settle in the country the following year, joining her brother Rasesh Thakkar and their sister in Toronto.

Career

Teaching

Thakkar founded Nrtyakala: The Canadian Academy of Indian Dance in Toronto in 1974. For a decade, she taught dance intensives across Canada. She also taught a course in Indian dance as an adjunct professor at York University in Toronto. Thakkar was credited in the Ottawa Citizen for "singlehandedly craft[ing] a whole generation of South Asian dancers in Canada".

Performance and choreography

In 1984, Thakkar founded the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, based in Toronto. As a dancer and choreographer, she has t

spring 2022

MENAKA THAKKAR A tribute to Canada's Indian classical dance icon

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contents

Petiteau / Photo courtesy of Atlantic Ballet of Canada; Renée Mak / Photo by Angie Nguyen of Scopo Photography; Khiyla Aynne, 10, and Lucius Dechausay on set for CBC’s The Move / Photo courtesy of Dechausay

Volume 25 Issue 2 spring 2022

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DEPARTMENTS

CURRENTS

FEATURES

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Masthead

W HAT’ S O N ?

F EATURE PROF IL E

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Your Notes

9

22

7

Editor’s Letter

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Contributor Notes

Event Previews

N E WS

CoMotion Festival Set to be Biggest Disability Arts Festival in North America 13

Alex Bulmer, festival curator, said it's important to break down the medical model of disability by serena lopez HISTO RICA L MOM E N TS

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What Is Blackness?

Two cultural leaders unpack what being Black and African means to them by kj dowdie F IRST P E R S O N

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TRI BUTE

18

Menaka Thakkar

Canada was the prolific dance artist's garden, and her seeds changed the cultural landscape by dhriti gupta

B O DY

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Long and Strong

17

Ask the Chiropractor

Improve your hamstring flexibility with strength training by surabhi veitch

Dr. Stephen Gray answers your questions spring 2022

CIRCUS A RTS

26

Rebuilding the Big Top

Can circus truly become a national art form? by dylan schoenmakers KID TA L K

34

Tiny Showgoers

Bringing artistic experiences to kids is essential to a healthy arts ecology, but access is uneven across Canada by kallee lins

Freeing My Body

After generations of shame conditioning, I’m rejecting the restraints placed on my ancestors’ bodies by maura garcía

ON THE COVER

From Moncton With Love

Olga Petiteau, of Atlantic Ballet of Canada, on immigrating, injury

8 JENNIFER HODGE DE SILVA was a pioneering filmmaker in the 1970s and 1980s, and the first Black filmmaker to work consistently with the National Film Board and the CBC. Her documentaries, including her signature film, Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community (1983), explored complex social conditions in Canada. DAN GEORGE was an actor, poet, and public speaker from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. Born Geswanouth Slahoot, George began acting at the age of 60. His role as Old Lodge Skins in Little Big Man (1970) earned George an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, the first time an Indigenous actor was nominated for an Oscar. He often acted alongside other Indigenous actors such as Jay Silverheels. George refused to play roles or be in films that demeaned Indigenous peoples and culture. For some First Nations in the prairies, the Sun Dance is an annual sacred ceremony used to reaffirm spiritual beliefs about the universe. The Sun Dance was, historically, an opportunity to renew kinship ties, arrange marriages, and exchange property. The ceremony was banned under the Indian Act of 1895, along with several traditional Indigenous ceremonies, dances, and festivals. An amendment to the Indian Act in 1951 dropped the ban on the Sun Dance, and some groups continue to celebrate today. BRIANMACDONALD became one of the most prolific and internationally renowned directors and choreographers in Canada in his 50-year career. An original member of the National Ballet of Canada, he went on to establish an international reputation as a choreographer, and later as a director of opera and musicals. Macdonald also directed 19 stage productions as an associate director of the Stratford Festival. MENAKA THAKKAR was a dancer, choreographer, director, and teacher who had a profound influence on the development of Indian classical dance in Canada. Although noted as a distinguished performer of classical styles of Indian dance, she drew critical attentio