Art Form: Kathak dance

Location(s): Swartz Creek (Genesee County)

Ashoka Rao

Portrait of Ashoka Rao

Ashoka dancing with various kathak gestures, courtesy of the artist

Ashokbala “Ashoka” Rao was born in Bombay, India.  She began to explore Kathak style of North Indian dance at the age of four.  She continued under the tutelage of Legendary Master recognized as the torchbearers of Lucknowi Kathak.  Ashoka has won awards at the state and national levels, including first place at the prestigious Sur Singar Sansad-Bombay and All India Classical Dance Competition. To enrich her choreography, Ashoka continued to train in the additional styles of Bharatanatyam, Manipuri, and Kuchipuddi classical dance.  As a performer, she has traveled throughout North India and enriched her experience in folk dances from the local people.

Her professional experience includes classical dance recitals, choreography of several original dance-dramas, and “Show Biz” performances produced in Bombay. She notes that Kathak occupies a unique space because it carries both, Bhakti aspect (devotional dance of Hindu Temples) and the Darbari (Mughal court) associations, though is not practiced as popularly as Bharatanatyam or Kuchipuddi dance in Michigan.

She moved to Michigan in 1975 with her husband and lives in the Flint area. She is very active in the local arts community, serving as Development Director for the Flint Public Library and working with local groups such as the Great Flint Sunrise Rotary Club, the India Club of Genesee County, Flint Institute of Music, Bharatiya temple of Troy, Chinmaya Mission of Flint, MI., and Pashchim Kasi Vishwanatha Temple, Flint, MI. 

Ashoka has worked tirelessly to educate the public, both within and outside of her ethnic community in Michigan, about Kathak dance through the production of educational performances and dance-dramas that brought famed Kathak dancers from India to the U.S. Her dance-drama productions can include up to 75 local dancers, ranging from children to adults, and require the writing of scripts, stage production, costume design, and dancer coordination.

Many of her students continue visiting with and learning from even after they have graduated college and moved from the area because of her dedication to teaching them not only the correct movements but encouraging them to embody the narratives contained within Kathak dance. There are now over 42 certified students of Ashoka’s that are capable of teaching Kathak, including five who have participated in the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program with her. To quote her nomination materials, “she delivers the best education in Kathak and continues to serve as the torchbearer in providing outstanding resources to Kathak lovers.”

Ashoka is a perpetual student deeply connected to her teacher’s family, Lt. Pundit Arjun Mishra of Kathak Academy, Lucknow, India.

- Micah Ling, 2023