Ram Gopal, OBE, Indian Dance & Norbury
Ram Gopal, the Indian dancer and choreographer, died on 12 October 2003 at the Norbury Hall Residential Care Home.
He was born in in India on 20 November 1912. He learned Kathakali, Bharatanatyam and Muthukumaran Pillaic dance.
In the 1930s he toured Asia and became an important introducer of Indian classical dance in the West. In 1939 he performed at the Aldwych Theatre.
As a member of ENSA he performed in India during the War, returning to England afterwards.
Working with the ballerina Dame Alicia Markova he created in 1960 the dance Radha-Krishna. Her bronze bust and his portrait can be
seen at the National Portrait Gallery.
He published Indian Dancing in 1951, and his autobiography Rhythms in the Heavens in 1957. He set up the Academy of Indian Dance and Music in London in 1962.
He was featured in the films Aum Shiva, Ram and Lord Siva Danced (1947).
He received an OBE for services to dance in 1999.
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About seancreighton1947
I have lived in Norbury since July 2011. I blog on Croydon, Norbury and history events,news and issues. I have been active on local economy, housing and environment issues with Croydon TUC and Croydon Assembly. I have submitted views to Council Committees and gave evidence against the Whitgift Centre CPO and to the Local Plan Inquiry. I am a member of Norbury Village Residents Association and Chair of Norbury Community Land Trust, and represent both on the Love Norbury community organisations partnership Committee. I used to write for the former web/print Croydon Citizen. I co-ordinate the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Croydon Radical History Networks and edit the North East Popular Politics history database. I give history talks and lead history walks. I retired in 2012 having worked in the community/voluntary sector and on heritage projects. My history interests include labour, radical and suffrage movements, mutuality, Black British, slavery & abolition, Edwardian roller skating and the social and political use of music and song. I have a particular interest in the histories of Battersea and Wandsworth, Croydon and Lambeth. I have a publishing imprint History & Social Action Publications.
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