Uday Shankar Chowdhury was born in Udaipur, Rajasthan, the eldest son of an Brahmin family with origins in Narail (present-day Bangladesh).

[6] His father Shyam Shankar Chowdhury, a noted barrister, was employed with the Maharaja of Jhalawar in Rajasthan at the time of his eldest son's birth, and his mother Hemangini Devi was descended from a zamindari family.

[9] Because his father moved frequently on account of his work, the family spent much time in Uday's maternal uncle's house in Nasratpur with his mother and brothers.

Here he married an English woman and practised law, before becoming an amateur impresario, introducing Indian dance and music to Britain.

He danced at a few charity performances that his father had organized in London, and on one such occasion, noted Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova happened to be present.

This led to the creation of ballets based on Hindu themes, 'Radha-Krishna', a duet with Anna, and 'Hindu Wedding', for inclusion in her production, 'Oriental Impressions'.

Later he continued to conceive and choreograph ballets, including one based on the Ajanta Caves frescoes, which was performed across the United States.

Shankar returned to India in 1927, along with a French pianist, Simon Barbiere, who was now his disciple and dance partner, and a Swiss sculptor, Alice Boner, who wanted to study Indian art history.

Together with musicians Vishnu Dass Shirali and Timir Baran, he created a new template for music to accompany his newly devised movements.

He performed in the United States for the first time in January 1933 in New York City, along with his dance partner Simkie, a French dancer.

In 1936, he was invited by Leonard Knight Elmhirst, who had earlier assisted Rabindranath Tagore in building Sriniketan, close to Shanti Niketan, to visit Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon for a six-month residency, with his troupe and lead dancer, Simkie.

Soon, he had a large assemblage of artists and dancers, including Guru Dutt, Shanti Bardhan, Simkie, Amala, Satyavati, Narendra Sharma, Ruma Guha Thakurta, Prabhat Ganguly, Zohra Sehgal, Uzra, Lakshmi Shankar, Shanta Gandhi; his own brothers Rajendra, Debendra and Ravi also joined him as students.

Mamata Shankar, a dancer like her parents, became a noted actress, working in films by Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. She also runs the 'Udayan Dance Company' in Kolkata, and travels extensively through the world.

The school continued until 2015, remaining dedicated to carrying on with Shankar's ideas about processes of innovative and creative dance making.

Shankar's followers and associates include Shanti Bardhan, creator of Ramayana ballets presentations, Guru Dutt, one of India's finest film directors, Lakshmi Shankar, a noted classical singer, Zohra Sehgal, who performed on the stage, television, and the cinema both in India and in Britain.

[18] In December 1983, his younger brother, sitar player Ravi Shankar organised a four-day festival, Uday-Utsav Festival in New Delhi, marking the 60th anniversary of his professional debut in 1923, highlighted by performances by his disciples, films, an exhibition and orchestral music composed and orchestrated by Ravi Shankar himself.

[3] The centenary celebrations of his birth were formally launched at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 26 April 2001, where dancers, choreographers and scholars from all over the world assembled to pay homage to Uday Shankar.