Medha Yodh
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Medha Yodh (July 31, 1927 in Ahmedabad – July 11, 2007 in San Diego) was an Indian and Indian American Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher of classical Indian dance at UCLA. She was a disciple of Tanjore Balasaraswati and created a documentary on Garba.
Medha Yodh was born on July 31, 1927, in the city of Ahmedabad, which is located in the present day state of Gujarat.[1] Yodha began dancing before she turned five years old.[1] Yodh became fascinated with Bharatanatyam, one of India's best known forms of classical dance, early in life.[1]
Despite her interest in dance, Medha Yodh education's was heavily focused on science. Yodha received as Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Bombay.[1] She continued her education and received her master's from Stanford University in California.[1] Medha Yoda later explained her unusual educational background for a dance teacher in a 1984 interview with the Los Angeles Times, "I have a proper Brahman background. I grew up in British India, and I was expected to learn the arts, to go into the sciences and to travel abroad.[1]
Medha Yodh traveled extensively outside of India during her younger years. Her travels exposed her to different forms of modern and world styles of dance. Ultimately, Yodh became a student of Tanjore Balasaraswati, one of the most important Indian dancers of her time, while visiting Connecticut.[1] She became a lifelong student and disciple of Balasaraswati.
She also met and married a Swedish medical student, Carl von Essen, during her travels.[1] The couple later divorced.