Tara Chaudhri
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Tara Chaudhri was an exponent of Indian classical dance. Believed to have hailed from Lahore, she trained under different maestros of dance, and went on to be acclaimed for her versatility and contributions to the dance forms of Kathak, Manipuri, Kathakali and Bharathnatyam. She was described as the "Pavlova of Punjab" and earned acclaim and respect from international contemporaries.[1]
She traveled to South India in 1943 to train further in South Indian dance forms of Kathakalli. Her initiation to Bharathnatyam remains a bit of a mystery, as per some accounts she might have learned the dance during her stay in South India, but according to a 1942 pamphlet, she ran a dance school and taught ‘Bharata Natya’ in Lahore, the cultural capital of North India before Independence. She is known to have trained under Guru Meenakshisundaram Pillai, considered as the prominent founder of Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam, Indian dance.[2]