A dedicated teacher and Uday Shankar Professor of Dance and the Dean of the Faculty Council of Undergraduate and Post Graduate Studies in Fine Arts at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.
A dedicated teacher, Amita’s students include National and State Scholarship Awardees, University Gold Medallists and successful performers. Amita has been the research advisor of many research scholars including Fulbright scholars. As Artistic Director of Ananda Chandrika, an organization for research and productions on dance, Amita has choreographed and presented many innovative dance programs and documented many dance productions.
In an attempt to popularize and make available authentic training of Kathak all over the world, Amita has embarked on a program of teaching through the television and the web. She has been the Resource person for 36 episodes on Kathak covering the entire Bachelor of Performing Arts Foundation Course in Kathak as prescribed by the University Grants Commission and produced by the Educational Multi Media Research Centre, Kolkata, for the University Grants Commission - Consortium for Education Communication scheme. This project is still continuing with more episodes under preparation for the Bachelor of Performing Arts 2nd Year, 3rd Year and 4th Year Courses. These courses are available as CDs from the UGC-CEC office at Delhi and are telecast often on the Indian television Doordarshan National and UGC network and on the EMRC website. These programs have received citations in the 19TH UGC-CEC All India Educational Video Competition held at New Delhi in Oct-Nov 2007 in the categories Best Programme in E-content and Best Presenter / Anchor Person.
She is the Uday Shankar Professor of Dance and the Dean of the Faculty Council of Undergraduate and Post Graduate Studies in Fine Arts at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. Her associations with other major Universities as Resource Person, Expert, Visiting Fellow and Examiner include Visvabharati (Santiniketan), Indira Kala Sangit Vishwa Vidyalaya (Khairagarh), M.S.University (Baroda), Punjabi University (Patiala), Tripura University, Bharatidasan University (Tiruchirapalli) and University of Burdwan. She has also given Lecture Demonstrations at various Universities in USA including the Universities of Arizona, Duke, Yale, Purdue, Ohio, Miami, Delaware, Fayetteville State, Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Tulsa and Central Florida.
She was invited by the Government of the United States to the prestigious American Dance Festival where she performed, taught in Master Classes and attended an Arts Management Course. Subsequently she has also contributed to her field as an organizer and manager. She was the Convener, Culture of the Bishwa Banga Millennium Festival and the Artistic Director of the Kathak Mahotsav 2000. She has also been the Coordinator for UGC Refresher Courses on Performing &Visual Arts at her University.
Amongst the innumerable awards and honours conferred on her, mention may be made of the titles of Singar Mani, Nritya Urvashi, Nritya Sagar and Nritya Bharati. She has been honoured at the North American Bengali Conference and the Mayor of Cincinnati, USA gave her the Keys to the City thereby making her an Honorary Citizen and also called that day, May 15, 1994, Amita Dutt Day. In November 2004 she received the Governor’s Commendation in recognition of her contribution to Art from Brad Henry, Governor of the State of Oklahoma, USA.
Always eager to serve society and the downtrodden, Amita has given innumerable performances for social service causes – both to create awareness and collect funds. She is an active member of the Rotary Club of Calcutta, having served in the capacities of Editor, Director and Chairperson and is the wife of the Past District Governor of Rotary International, Amitava Mookerjee. She is the Director of the Performing Arts Therapy Centre at Rabindra Bharati University where research is conducted and training is given to serve the ailing and the impaired through dance, drama and music.
Scholar, choreographer, danseuse and professor, Amita’s main aim is to popularize her dance and she has never turned down an opportunity to spread the message of her art at home or abroad.
Amita’s present passion is to establish the Bengal Gharana of Kathak. Over the last 150 years Kathak has become a part of the cultural heritage of Bengal. Innumerable performers, teachers and students of Kathak are spread all over the state. Amita wants to crystallize Bengal’s contribution to Kathak - which also features her Kathak creations - and lay the foundations of the Bengal Gharana of Kathak.
