Born on December 8, 1899, the great artiste was named Uday after his birthplace, Udaipur in Rajasthan. The son of a Brahmin family from Jessore, Uday's father Barrister Shyam Shankar Chowdhury at that time was the private secretary to the Maharaja of Jahalawar (Rajasthan). His father was a great admirer of dance and a great patron of music. Noticing young Uday's great enthusiasm and talent in performing arts, he made arrangements for his training in Gandharva Mahavidyalaya for music and in JJ School of Arts for fine arts. After staying in Mumbai for three years, Uday gained admission at the Royal College of Arts in London. He graduated, completing a five-year course in just two years, and received special awards named 'Erspensor' and 'Yeogrge Colgen'. He also achieved the highest scholarship, 'Priroma'.

In 1923 Uday accompanied the famous ballerina of Russia Anna Pavlova and demonstrated his dance in different countries of the West with her. After seeing his performance on stage in Calcutta in 1929, Abanindranath Tagore and Rabindranath Tagore highly praised him.

He was the first artiste to use various musical instruments instead of songs for dance. He choreographed dance numbers with relevant music, make up, costumes and stage sets highlighting the East.

Uday undertook intensive experimentation to develop and modernise Indian dance. He first introduced the use of shadow play dance after mixing the four main dance styles of India. He created a variety, combining creative movements which were completely his own, but traditional and contained the characteristics of the eastern folk dances. Among his choreographed piece dances and dance dramas, Rhythm of life, Labour missionary, Yajmoor Darsha, Panchatantra, Shivparvati, Ramlila, Lanka Danan and many more were well appreciated. Kalpana was a remarkable creation of Uday Shankar which was later made into a film.

In 1938 Uday established an institution named 'India Culture Centre' near Almora. Uday gathered around him a glorious gallery of gurus and maestros, such as Ustad Allaudin Khan, Yuru Shankaran Nambudiri (Kathakali guru), Kandappa Pillay (Bharatnatyam guru), Amobi Singh (Manipuri guru), Vishnudas Shirali (music director), Haren Ghosh, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar and a brilliant group of dance students and dance patrons from all over the world.

He married Amala Shankar who became one of his main dance partners and inspiration. The couple's two talented children Ananda Shankar and Momota Shankar were a class apart in expertise. Uday took his last breath on September 26, 1977 in Kolkata.

Compiled by Sharmila Bandyopadhyay, a Manipuri dancer and choreographer