The Lucknow Gharana

Pandit Chitresh Das




Artistic Director Gretchen Hayden

In the course of history, several gharanas (schools) of Kathak developed, each differentiated from the others by technical approach and stylistic preference. Of these schools, the Jaipur gharana and the Lucknow gharana, named after the cities in which they were cultivated, are the most renowned. As opposed to the Jaipur gharana, which emphasizes the technical mastery of pure dance and swift turns, the Lucknow gharana emphasizes expressive content including refined gesture and abhinaya (expression). The Lucknow style is said to have begun with Thakur Prasadji, dancer in the court of Wajid Ali Shah, the last nawab of Oudh , in the mid 1800s. Under the nawab's patronage, the arts, and in particular dance and music, flourished. Muslim patrons of the time valued dance as an aesthetic art and sensous expression of emotions and experiences.

Thakur Prasadji's nephews, Bindadin Maharaj and Kalka Prasad, carried on his legacy, and since then, the Lucknow gharana has been passed down through generations, from father to son and guru to disciple. Kalka Prasad's three sons, Acchan Maharaj, Lacchu Maharaj and Shambu Maharaj each specialized in different areas of Kathak, and helped bring the dance form to North Indian courts, the stage and film. Studying under his father Acchan Maharaj and his two uncles, Birju Maharaj, born in 1937, drew from the strengths of each and further developed the dance form, performing around the world.