Usha Gupta - Artistic Director, Concept and Direction

Usha Gupta started learning dance and music from the age of four while growing up in her native homeland of Jalandhar, India. Today, she’s highly regarded as an ambassador of cultural diversity in Edmonton and across Canada, known for her exceptional body of work in traditional and contemporary Indian classical dance.

Usha spent ten years training under Kathak Indian classical dance legends, Pandit Birju Maharaj and Guru Krishan Maharaj. She also holds two Masters degrees; one in Hindustani classical vocal music (1964) and another in Kathak dance (1965), both from Allahabad University (Uttar Pradesh, India). Additionally, she completed advanced training in Bharata Natyam for six years, with Guru Rama Rao (1974).

After completing her training, she opened her own Indian Classical Dance School – called the Usha Kala Music and Dance Academy in India, and later on, after marriage, she continued to operate her school in India, Doha, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. She then received the prestigious Government of India Choreography Award, further encouraging her in her ardent pursuit of teaching music and dance. While in Abu Dhabi, she received the Indian Embassy Arts Award (1984).

In May of 1989, Usha moved to Edmonton, Canada. In just a few months, she started teaching and re-named her dance school Usha Kala Niketan. To this day, Usha Kala Niketan school of dance and music boasts hundreds of students in classical and folk dances of India, and has presented at internationally renowned arts institutions, festivals and diverse community events.

Usha has fought to create opportunities for her students, to empower them in their growth as emerging artists in the community. Her students have performed in major cities including New York and Chicago, as well as across India, as part of her professional touring group. They have also competed and gone on to achieve gold medals in events such as Dance Power (one of the longest operating dance competitions in North America), Dance Extreme, and with the Edmonton Federation Community League. Furthermore, they have also performed in Kala Nidhi Fine Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada’s highly respected South Asian arts festival.

Through Usha Dance Entourage, her professional dance company, Usha has also toured her major dance productions across Canada and major cities in India. Her work has been featured by the Brian Webb Dance Company and Kala Nidhi Fine Arts Festival of Canada.

Her first major work, Passages – Five Senses with Five Seasons, premiered in 1997, by the Brian Webb Dance Company. With support from the Edmonton Arts Council, Usha was first able to create a “works in progress” viewing to help determine how a Canadian audience may react to her work. After receiving great support, she continued to explore the various emotions that a woman experiences during the seasons of the year. She worked with Kathak and Modern dancers along with four Canadian musicians, to present both the positive and negative feelings and movements that correlate with the seasons.

In 2000, Usha embarked on her first India tour to present, Navarasa, after its premiere in Edmonton. She was the first to integrate Kathak, Flamenco, and Modern dance to create a piece that explored Navarasa – the nine moods of a human being. In 2002, Usha represented Alberta as a cultural ambassador in Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copp’s highly respected conference on culture and diversity, through which she travelled across Canada.

Within the next ten years, Usha conceptualized two more professional works, Asht Nayika and Nari, Nari, Nari… my love. In Asht Nayika, Usha used dance and music to depict the eight heroines (nayikas) in the daily life of South Asian women, again through Kathak, Flamenco, and Modern dance.

Nari, Nari, Nari… my love describes the different phases of womanhood. To assist with the research of this, Usha participated in a Vipasana meditative retreat in British Columbia. While finding peace in silence, she thought about the struggles many women face as they mature. Through Kathak, Kalaripayattu (martial arts), and Modern dance - she sought to artistically explore the different faces of love and peace found through spirituality.

Most recently, Usha has created her most popular works, Aalaap and Khoj. Aalaap first premiered in Edmonton in 2014, which then toured India later that year. The work featured well-known Kathak artists including Sanjukta Sinha (Ahmedabad, India), Anuj Mishra (Lucknow, India), and Sudheshna Maulik (Montreal, Canada). This work also featured Usha’s very own students from Edmonton, Canada, bringing them into the professional realm, after nearly 15 years of training. Aalaap involves the scatting or scale work of Indian music, combined with improvisational movement.

Khoj, Usha’s latest and perhaps most reputable work, is continuing to evolve. First presented in Edmonton, Canada in 2018 at the Brian Webb Dance Company, it has since toured eleven major cities in India and is scheduled for a tour of 10 cities across Canada in 2022, with support from the Canada Council, Edmonton Arts Council, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. At 80 years old, Usha passionately continues to teach and present thought-provoking work across the country and continues to support emerging artists through her academy.

As seen in her work, Usha embodies a feminist mindset and has focused her work on the state of women. Though society has seen tremendous change in her lifetime, she has successfully integrated these ideologies into her work, while bringing together a sense of community, through dance, music, and multiculturalism.

Since 2004, she has been awarded by the Edmonton Arts Council, Alberta Dance Alliance, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Canada Council for production and touring. In 2016, she hosted and performed in the critically acclaimed, Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by the legendary Pandit Birju Maharaj. In 2017, she was inducted into Edmonton’s Hall of Fame for Culture and Diversity, in recognition of her integral contribution in bringing her South Asian heritage into Edmonton’s community. She also received Edmonton’s Salute to Excellence Awards in 2001, which honours Edmontonians who have contributed to the unique and diverse fabric of the community.

Usha is deeply committed to uplifting her community and promoting multiculturalism throughout Canada. She further shows this through her work as a member of the Rag Mala Music Society, Edmonton Art Council, Alberta Dance Alliance, Edmonton Folk Council and Indo-Canadian Women Association.

Usha has achieved beyond what she could have imagined in the last 32 years in Canada and continues to learn, teach, and present both dance and music, as a highly prolific Canadian and Indian dance artist, choreographer and teacher. Her incredible commitment to the growth of the arts and culture community has further supported and advocated for South Asian arts to find an important place in Canada.