Uday Shankar was born on December 8, 1900, in Udaipur. He was the eldest son of Dr. Shyam Shankar Chowdhury, an educationist. Uday spent his childhood at Ghazipur. A truant who hated school, he sneaked away from home to watch a dance and he repeated it at home. Uday Shankar was sent to school at Varanasi and then to the J. J. School of Arts, Bombay. In 1920, he went to England and was admitted to the Royal College of Arts, London, where he tried to master Western painting under Sir William Rothenstein. However, he opted for a dancing career in 1922 under the influence of Anna Pavlova, Europe's then leading Ballerina.

He tried his hand in running a school of dancing at Almora (1939) and at producing a film 'Kalpana'. As a dancer, he was original, as a choreographer, idealistic. He was the first person to present an Indian ballet with an Indian theme, accompanied by a musical score in which no foreign instrument was used. Uday Shankar with his troupe toured extensively in Europe, America and other parts of the world. He can be called one of the great cultural ambassadors of our age. His main achievement was the blending of the Indian classical style with the Western ballet and various folk dances.

Much of his inspiration came from Indian mythology and temple sculpture, which he re-created with his own imaginative ideas about dress d'cor and music in its many dimensions. Notable examples of this synthesis were his famous items like 'Shivatandava', 'Gajasurabadh', 'Kartikeya', 'Indra' and 'Labour and Machine'. He passed away on September 26, 1977.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India