Dance Historian & Padma Shri Awardee Sunil Kothari Passes Away

“He had tested positive for COVID-19 almost a month back and was not in a good condition,” said Vidha Lal.

Sunil Kothari had qualified as a Chartered Accountant, before moving on to study Indian dance forms.

(Photo Courtesy: Aseem Chhabra/Twitter)

Dance historian, critic and Padma Shri awardee Sunil Kothari breathed his last after suffering a cardiac arrest on the morning of Sunday, 27 December.

87-year-old Sunil Kothari had tested positive for COVID-19 in November, reported PTI, quoting dancer Vidha Lal, who was a family friend of Kothari.

“He had tested positive for COVID-19 almost a month back and was not in a good condition.”   

Vidha Lal   

Kothari was born on 20 December 1922 in Mumbai and had qualified as a Chartered Accountant, before moving on to study Indian dance forms, reported PTI.

According to PTI, he had authored more than 20 books on Indian dance forms, including “Sattriya Dances of Assam” and “New Directions in Indian Dance”.

Kothari has also been a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi awarenesses, Kumar Chandrak and Rajitram Suvarna Chandrak.

Tributes Pour in for the Famed Historian

Author Aseem Chhabra took to Twitter to bid goodbye to the renowned dance historian.

Entrepreneur Sanjoy K Roy too, took to Twitter to pay his tributes to “the eternal young man in search of the perfect dance performance.”

Other Twitter users too, mourned his demise and paid their tributes to Sunil Kothari.