Esther Luella Sherman, better known as Ragini Devi, was an Indian classical dancer of Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali and Odissi, which she popularised in the west.
10 Facts About Ragini Devi
1.
2.
Ragini Devi was born in 1893 in the lakeside town of Petoskey, Michigan.
3.
Ragini Devi's mother, Ida Bell Parker Sherman, her father, Alexander Otto Sherman, had Canadian-German ancestry and was an immigrant tailor.
4.
In 1930, seizing her new international fame, Ragini Devi decided to travel to India, which she had been long eager to do.
5.
Committed, above all else, to dance, Ragini Devi left her husband and set sail for South India.
6.
Ragini Devi travelled, seeking out teachers, eager to study Indian dance at its source.
7.
Ragini Devi became the first woman to study Kathakali at the legendary Kerala Kalamandalam.
8.
In 1938, Ragini Devi set sail for a European tour which had barely begun when the escalation of European hostilities forced her to return, with her daughter, to the United States.
9.
Ragini Devi avoided capture and escaped to the United States where, in 1916, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota.
10.
Ragini Devi left India to retire at the Actors Fund Home assisted living facility in Englewood, New Jersey, where she died from a stroke on January 22,1982.