Sepia print of an original watercolour painting by E. Farro, showing a full length image of English dancer, Roshanara (Olive Craddock) (1894-1926) in costume. Roshanara has added a handwritten dedication in pencil at the bottom right hand corner, dated 18 September 1913.


Roshanara occupies a similar position in Britain to that of Ruth St. Denis in the USA, albeit she is far less-widely known. Both aroused an interest in Indian and what was then called oriental dance at a time when there had been little serious study of the art form in Western theatre, although for both theatricality remained more important than authenticity. An important difference from St Denis was that Craddock was born in Calcutta and brought up in India of mixed parentage - an English mother and Anglo-Indian father, of Irish extraction – giving her a serious base rather than fantasy from which to draw her dances. Also, although Roshanara taught, unlike St Denis she never established a formal school to perpetuate her ideas. As Alma Talley wrote in ‘The Story of Roshanara’, The Dance, November 1926, ‘Roshanara has brought to the Western World the spirit of Central India as no one else has ever been able to bring it…India’s dances were a part of her soul. She devoted her life to perfecting them, as an artist in water colors gives years of study to making his art as nearly perfect as perfection is humanly possible'.

Once Craddock had chosen a performing career she adopted the name of a Mughal princess (1617-1671), reputed to have been the first to travel outside her own country. The name means 'Light-Adorning'. In about 1909 Craddock travelled to Europe with her mother and appears to have worked briefly with Loie Fuller before, in 1911, having studied with Tortola Valencia, she appeared as the Almah in Kismet at the Garrick Theatre. In 1911 (14, 18, 21, 25m November & 5 December ) she appeared five times as Zobeide in Schéhérazade for the Ballets Russes at Covent Garden, London.

In 1912 Roshanara had a season at the Palace Theatre, London, and in the autumn had a speciality spot on Anna Pavlova’s British regional tour, presenting her Incense, Village and Snake dances. In 1913 Roshanara danced at the Tivoli, London, and in July-August 1914 appeared for two weeks at the London Coliseum. She periodically returned to India to dance. By 1916 she was dancing in the USA where she gave numerous recitals, appeared in productions, danced with Adolph Bolm’s multi-cultural Ballets Intimes and taught. (Bette Davis was for a time one of her pupils). Her life and work are documented in 'Roshanara "Secrets of Oriental Grace"’, Dance Lovers Magazine, February 1925, pp.35, 36, 66 and substantial obituary articles by Talley: ‘The Story of Roshanara A Short Biography of That Great Englishwoman Who Brought the Art of the Orient to the Eyes of the Western World’, The Dance, November 1926, pp.10-13, 51; and ‘Always a Wanderer, She Brought the Rich Beauty of Oriental Art to Many Lands’, The Dance, December 1926, pp.41, 42, 50.
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