AstadDeboo who enlightened the dance environment in India with his unique way of blending the aesthetics of Indian and Western dance to present s narratives to the audience has passed away on December 10 at the age of 73. The maestro of contemporary dance in India, Daboo approached the art holistically. He was indeed a lonely warrior in the field of Indian dance who dedicated his entire life to give a new outlook to Indian contemporary dance. The richness of the narrative world embedded in his enchanting dance pieces changed the way people perceived dancing. With his flexible body movements and graceful expressions, Deboo’s dance performances constantly conversed with the ground realities of Indian society.
Born in Gujarat and brought up in Kolkata, Deboo entered the world of dance at the age of six by learning kathak. During his undergraduate days, he came to witness a dance performance by American Murray Louis Dance Company in Mumbai and it had changed his life. From Mumbai, he left to New York and joined Martha Graham Centre for Contemporary Dance. His never-ending love for dance took him to London School of Contemporary Dance where he learnt Martha Graham’s modern dance techniques. Later, under the guidance of Guru E Krishna Panikkar, he studied kathakali as well. His passion and dedication to dance had no limitations. He went on to different corners of the world to imbibe the many vocabularies of the art of dancing. He collaborated with various prestigious platforms such as Pink Floyd, Gundecha Brothers, Thang-Ta the martial art dancers of Manipur and many others. One of the remarkable collaborations of Deboo is Rhythm Divine-River Runs Deep, for which he joined with the PungCholom drummers of Manipur.
In 2002, Deboo along with 12 deaf women dancers from the Clarke School for the Deaf, Chennai staged a magnificent dance performance at the 20th Annual Deaf Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. In the same year, he established The AstadDeboo Dance Foundation to provide support and creative training to street children and deaf dancers. He collaborated with Salaam Baalak Trust, an NGO for street children in 2009. Along with fourteen street children from the NGO he staged his production ‘Breaking Boundaries’. AstadDeboo was indeed the dance ambassador of our country, as the performance artist Danish Husain has rightly said. He danced with a vision and it always got reflected in his performances. Deboo sailed against the taboos inherent in Indian dance through expanding the boundaries of his art.
