Dhaka, July 25 -- Renowned danseuse Amala Shankar passed away in Kolkata at the age of 101 on Friday. Wife of legendary Indian dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar, Amala learned to dance during the 1930s, when women from 'respectable households' were just about beginning to perform classical dance on stage. She was the mother of musician Ananda Shankar and actress Mamata Shankar and sister-in-law of musician and composer Ravi Shankar.

Amala Nandy was born in 1919 in Jashore (now in Bangladesh) to a merchant family, which was interested in education and arts. It was a chance encounter in France in 1930 when she met her guru and future husband Uday Shankar. At the tender age of 11, when she had accompanied her father, Akshay Nandy, at th...