Ram Gopal (dancer)

Bissano Ram Gopal OBE (20 November 1912 – 12 October 2003) was an Indian dancer and choreographer whose career was marked by extensive global touring, often as a solo performer. He took a modernist approach, fusing elements of classical Indian dance, folk traditions, and ballet. Alongside Uday Shankar, he was a pioneer in bringing Indian classical dance to Western audiences from the 1930s onward. The Polish critic Tadeusz Zelenski dubbed him "the Nijinsky of India."

Early life and training

Gopal was born in Bangalore, India, and received the name Bissano because his birth fell on 20 November—"Bees" meaning 20 in Hindi. His mother was Burmese, his father a Rajput barrister, and the family lived in a mansion called Torquay Castle. His grandmother was a well-known dancer. Drawn to dance early, he studied Kathakali under Gurus Kunju Kurup and Chandu Panickar.

After performing at the Maharaja of Mysore’s annual garden party without his father’s consent, the Maharaja convinced his father to let him continue training. In his early forties, he began learning Bharatanatyam from Guru Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai of the Pandanallur style, later studying with Muthukumaran Pillai. He also trained in Kathak with Sohanlal and Bowri Prasad, and in Manipuri dance, absorbing all these forms into his later choreography.

Career

The American dancer La Meri, who specialized in non-Western dance, invited Gopal to the United States and toured Asia with him in the 1930s. He made his solo debut at New York City’s 46th Street Theatre on 1 May 1938. His impresario, Polish writer Aleksander Janta-Połczyński, arranged a tour of Poland in June 1938. In 1939, Gopal traveled to Paris with Kathak dancer Sohanlal, and that same year he made his London debut at the Aldwych Theatre, achieving immediate fame.

He met Queen Mary and formed friendships with leading ballet figures. During World War II, he returned to India with ENSA, ending his professional ties with Janta-Połczyński. After the war, in 1948, the famed dancer Nijinsky came to "inspect him." Gopal toured extensively as a soloist and with his company both before and after the war, becoming known for his costumes, staging, and lighting.

He represented India at the New York Golden Anniversary International Dance Festival at City Center in 1948, performed at Jacob’s Pillow in 1954, and at the Edinburgh Festival in 1956. In 1960, he collaborated with British ballerina Dame Alicia Markova on the duet "Radha-Krishna," based on Hindu mythology, with her as Radha and him as Krishna. Their partnership is commemorated at the National Portrait Gallery in London, where her bronze bust stands beside his full-length portrait by Feliks Topolski.

Later, he danced with Mrinalini Sarabhai in Bangalore and toured with Kumudini Lakhia. He also had a successful partnership with the young dancer Tara Chaudhri, for whom he had great fondness. Dance critic Cyril Beaumont, editor of Dance Journal, wrote that what most impressed him about Gopal’s dancing was his ability to assimilate the characteristics of four completely different schools of technique in style, costume, and mood. Gopal also danced at the Mumbai school run by Austrian expressionist dancer Hilde Holger, remaining friends and collaborating on experimental pieces.

Kay Ambrose’s 1950 book Classical Dances and Costumes of India features an introduction by Ram Gopal and a foreword by Arnold Haskell, with 53 illustrations from photographs and many drawings by Ambrose. The introduction includes a letter Gopal wrote to Ambrose from Bangalore in February 1942, and the book contains numerous photos and illustrations of Gopal performing. He published Indian Dancing in 1951 and his autobiography Rhythms in the Heavens in 1957. He briefly opened two dance schools: one in Bangalore and later the Academy of Indian Dance and Music in London in 1962.

In his later years, he lived in London, Venice, and the South of France. French filmmaker Claude Lamorisse made two films about him, Aum Shiva and Ram. Gopal also appeared in Indian-born British documentary filmmaker Sarah Erulkar’s short Lord Siva Danced (1947). He received an OBE for services to dance in 1999 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1990.

Personal life

During the 1960s, while living in Chelsea, London, he was briefly married to Edith Alexander; the marriage ended with her death a few years later, and they had no children. He died at Norbury Care Home in Croydon, South London, after spending his last three years there, having unsuccessfully tried to settle again in his native Bangalore.

His stay was funded by the Lamorisse family, Croydon Council, and the Royal Ballet Benevolent Fund. After cremation, his ashes were scattered on the grounds of the Lamorisse family chateau in the South of France, where he had lived for a decade as a house guest of Mrs. Claude Lamorisse. Pam Cullen, a former cultural advisor to the Indian High Commission and a close friend, became executor of the Ram Gopal Estate and donated some of his costume pieces, especially ornate headgears, to the V&A Museum in London.