Chitresh Das

Chitresh Das (Devanagari: चित्रेश दास) (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 firmly 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. Today, there over 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.

Pandit Das performed and taught to audiences around the world, frequently touring through India, North America and Europe. He was well known for his virtuosic footwork, rhythmic adeptness, compelling storytelling, as well as his own innovation of “Kathak Yoga”.

Chitresh Das was born in Calcutta, West Bengal to parents 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, himself a dance scholar and choreographer, used traditional dance forms to express modern issues, such as in his revolutionary work “Abhyudaya” (meaning “awakening”) staged before Indian Independence in 1947. Das frequently cited his mother, Nilima Das, for having had a profound impact on his life as a dancer, often stating, “mother is the first guru”.

Growing up in his parents' dance school in Calcutta, Nritya Bharati, Pandit Das was surrounded by great literary artists, poets, dancers, and gurus of the times. He recalled fond memories of iconic dancers such as Rukmini Devi Arundale, Uday Shankar, Balasaraswati and the legendary Shambhu Maharaj coming to visit his home.

With encouragement from his mother, Das began his study of Kathak at age 9 under Kathak guru, Pandit Ram Narayan Misra, a well-known disciple of Shambhu and Acchchan Maharaj. Das was schooled in both major Kathak traditions, embodying each in his artistry: the graceful and sensual elements of the Lucknow school combined with the dynamic and powerful rhythms and movements of the Jaipur School.

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