Shrimati Gina In Dances Of India

Main Feature - Dancer - Gina Blau/ Shrimathi Gina

Early trained in classical Western music and considered a virtuoso on the piano, Gina revealed her innate love of dance by entering the spheres of Russian ballet and American modern dance in 1934. Her inquiring and analytical mind had previously explored the labyrinths of Law. She practised law after she earned a Bachelor of Law degree from St. Johns College in New York. (There was only one other female in the graduating class of 1929!) But soon, within about a year, she tired of the manipulative tugs of war in which she found herself involved and abandoned her law practice. Just as well, for it was in dance that she found her true vocation. Ginas first dance teacher was Bhupesh Guha, a dancer and choreographer from Bengal, whom she saw perform and met in 1937. Mr. Guhas stage-style and manner of instruction were basically founded upon Bengali folkloric forms and Uday Shankarlike choreographic concepts of movement impetus— he was a great admirer of Shankar, she disclosed later.