Harish Kumar (1979 – 2 June 2019) popularly known as Queen Harish was a folk dancer from Rajasthan, India. His work focused on the revival of Rajasthani folk dances,[1] and his performances included various folk dance forms from Rajasthan.
Personal life and death
Queen Harish in drag costume
Harish Kumar was born in 1979, in a carpenter family in the Suthar community in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.[2] He started dancing at the age of 13.[3] Harish, who lost his parents, started drag dancing to take care of his sisters.[3] Inspired by 'Annu Master', the first drag performer in the Jaisalmer region, he started learning drag dance under him.[3] He practiced American tribal style belly dance to make his body more capable of all feminine movements.[4]
Harish had performed Ghoomar, Kalbelia, Chang, Bhavai, Chari, and other folk dances of the Rajasthan state, in nearly 60 countries.[2] His performance was one of the highlights of the annual Jaipur Literary Fest.[5] He has participated in Raqs Congree in Brussels, Belly Dancing Championship in Seoul and Desilicious in New York City.[6] He has appeared in the reality television show 'India's Got Talent' and several Bollywood movies including Appudappudu (2003), Jai Gangaajal (2016) and The Accidental Prime Minister (2019).[7][8] In 2007, he starred in the documentary When the Road Bends… Tales of a Gypsy Caravan by American filmmaker Jasmine Dellal.[9][10] In collaboration with the government of Rajasthan, he ran a daily evening show at Jaisalmer called The Queen Harish Show.[11] He was also a choreographer with over two thousand students in Japan alone.[2]
Harish was married and had two sons.[12] He died at the age of 39, on 2 June 2019, in a road accident on a highway in Kaparda village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan.[13]
