Edmonton kathak icon Usha Gupta brings contemporary lens to classical Indian dance
Her ensemble work Khoj draws on reflections from a life lived around the globe
Khoj brings contemporary expression to the intricate, stylized movement of kathak. Photo by Sohail Kashif
The Firehall Arts Centre presents Khoj—A Contemporary Kathak Extravaganza September 21 to 24
KATHAK HAS ITS ANCIENT origins with travelling performers who once roamed northern India, telling stories through its intricate footwork and highly stylized hand and face gestures. But for Canadian kathak legend Usha Gupta, the form she learned in the Punjab growing up has blended over many decades with her travels around the globe—and what she’s absorbed from the contemporary dance scene in Edmonton, where she’s been based since the late 1980s.
“I’m very strict about the kathak but I’m very free in the ideas,” she tells Stir before bringing her ensemble work Khoj—A Contemporary Kathak Extravaganza to the Firehall Arts Centre. “Seeing a different world and different countries, I saw there were beautiful things and I started getting those things in my mind, and began the blending of this beautiful hybrid. But I will not abuse my kathak!”
It’s fitting that the four-dancer piece she brings here is called Khoj, a word that translates as “quest” in Hindi. Her life has been filled with searching and curiosity. The piece is inspired, she says, by the ever-flowing ocean that she has seen from different continents—particularly during a Hawaii vacation.
“I was in Maui two years ago and just standing there looking at the the ocean, and I thought, ‘My god this ocean is not ending!” she marvels.
That idea grew into a metaphor for the opening part of the program, alluding to the experiences of riding the shifting tides of life’s changes and the quest for meaning amid it all. “You keep searching and that’s something that never ends, like the ebb and flow of the waves,” she explains.
Usha Gupta performs in the show at 81. Photo by Sohail Kashif
Viewers from any cultural background will be able to relate to the universal emotions and stories expressed through the kathak in Khoj, Gupta stresses. Much of the work draws on her own life, and in one moving section she reflects on the painful loss of a husband who returns to India and never comes back. But Khoj also builds to express spiritual uplift in its Sufi-inspired search for divine truths.
Gupta grew up in Punjab, one of six sisters that her parents encouraged to take music and dance from early childhood. She flourished in both, going on to receive her masters in both singing and dance.
The artist worked in TV choreography after moving to big-city New Delhi, then spent time living in Qatar and Dubai before she and her husband first came to Edmonton to visit their daughter in 1986. She settled there to live in 1989, starting a dance school out of her basement, supporting herself after her husband left her. She immersed herself in the local contemporary scene, catching shows by Edmonton’s Brian Webb Dance Company, and forging a bond with its artistic director. Khoj was first produced in May 2018 as part of Webb’s company season, and Webb, well-known to the Vancouver scene, serves as dramaturg on the production.
“When I came here I did not know what ‘modern’ or ‘contemporary’ was,” she reflects with a laugh. But those forms opened her mind to the ideas and content she could explore with kathak: “Whatever you think, you can present.”
Today, she continues to work as a devoted artist, teacher, mentor, choreographer, and community advocate. In 2016, Gupta was inducted into the Edmonton Arts & Culture Hall of Fame, and in August of 2022, she received the lifetime achievement award for the Council of India Societies in Edmonton. Coming full circle, the Usha Gupta Dance Entourage toured 10 cities in India.
Though her surroundings have changed, she’s never lost that passion for the art form she started at just five years old.
“I still practise every day,” she says, “and I’m in the show throughout!” Like the ocean currents, this octagenarian icon stays in constant motion.
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