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{{short description|Indian dancer}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Madame Menaka
| image = MadameMenaka1938.png
| alt = A fair-skinned Bengali woman wearing a dupatta to loosely cover her head, and dark beads
| caption = Menaka (Leila Sokhey), from a 1938 publication
| other_names = Leila Sokhey
| birth_name = Leila Roy
| birth_date = October 15, 1899
| birth_place = Barisal, East Bengal
| death_date = May 30, 1947
| death_place =
| occupation = Dancer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) = [[Sahib Singh Sokhey]]
| relatives =
}}

'''Madame Menaka''' (October 15, 1899 – May 30, 1947) was the professional name of '''Leila Roy, Lady Sokhey''', an Indian dancer and choreographer in the [[Kathak]] tradition.

== Early life and education ==
Leila Roy was born in [[Barisal]], [[Bengal Presidency]], the daughter of Pyare Lal Roy and Lolita Roy. Her father was a Bengali lawyer trained in England, and her mother was British.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|date=2011-04-01|title=Culture: Giants Who Reawakened Indian Dance|url=https://www.hinduismtoday.com/magazine/april-may-june-2011/2011-04-culture-giants-who-reawakened-indian-dance/|access-date=2021-11-24|website=Hinduism Today|language=en-US}}</ref> She attended the [[Loreto Convent, Darjeeling|Loreto Convent]] in Darjeeling and [[St Paul's School, London|St Paul’s School]] in London.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kabadi Waman P.|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.523178|title=Indian Who's Who 1937-38|date=1937|pages=743|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She trained as a violinist in England, but pursued dance as a career, with encouragement from Russian ballet dancer [[Anna Pavlova]], whom she met in London in 1927.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Khokar|first=Ashish Mohan|date=8 February 2011|title=The Dance History Column: The role and contribution of pioneering gurus and foreigners in the revival of classical Indian dances (1900s-50s)|url=https://narthaki.com/info/tdhc/tdhc26.html|access-date=2021-11-24|website=Narthaki}}</ref> Her Kathak dance teachers included Pandit Sitaram Prasad and Achhan Maharaj.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Kothari|first=Sunil|date=2019-11-11|title=The magnetic Madame Menaka and the Tiger of Hastinapur|url=https://www.asianage.com/life/more-features/111119/the-magnetic-madame-menaka-and-the-tiger-of-hastinapur.html|access-date=2021-11-24|website=The Asian Age}}</ref>

== Career ==
Sokhey gave dance recitals in Bombay in 1928,<ref>{{Cite news|date=29 December 1928|title=Indian Art Revival: 'Menaka'{{'}}s Programme at Excelsior|page=15|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.6965/page/14/mode/2up?q=Leila+Sokhey|access-date=November 24, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vakil|first=Kanaiyalal H.|date=February 1928|title=Dancing in India: A New Era|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.274281/page/n589/mode/2up?q=Leila+Sokhey|journal=The Modern Review|pages=689–692|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> and began choreographing and teaching dance to students at the [[Haffkine Institute]]. She danced in Paris in 1930,<ref>"Foreign show News: Indian Dancers are 1 Too Many in Paris" ''Variety'' 100 (20) (Nov 26, 1930): 55. ProQuest</ref> and her Menaka dance company toured Europe from 1935 to 1938.<ref>{{Cite news|date=22 April 1938|title=Indian Dancers' Triumphs Abroad; Menaka Troupe's Success in the Capitals of Europe|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.12490/page/2/mode/2up?q=Leila+Sokhey|access-date=November 24, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> They entered the Berlin Dance Olympiad,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Khokar|first=Ashish|date=2018-05-31|title=Menaka, Mrinalini and Maya, the dancing trendsetters|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/dance/menaka-mrinalini-and-maya-the-trendsetters/article24047472.ece|access-date=2021-11-24|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> in conjunction with the [[1936 Summer Olympics|Summer Olympics]] in Berlin in 1936, and won several trophies.<ref>{{Cite news|date=8 September 1936|title=Menaka at the Dance Olympiad|page=5|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.10845/page/4/mode/2up?q=Leila+Sokhey|access-date=November 24, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> She met modern dancer [[Mary Wigman]] during her time in Germany.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Warren|first=Vincent|date=2006|title=Yearning for the Spiritual Ideal: The Influence of India on Western Dance 1626-2003|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20444666|journal=Dance Research Journal|volume=38|issue=1/2|pages=97–114|doi=10.1017/S0149767700007403|jstor=20444666|s2cid=193774298|issn=0149-7677|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Her company and choreography appeared in at least two European films, the German-language ''[[The Tiger of Eschnapur (1938 film)|Der Tiger von Eschnapur]]'' (1938) and a British documentary in color, ''Temples of India'' (1938).

In 1941, with her husband's financial support,<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Palit|first=Maj Gen DK|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SPLSMXSl8dEC&dq=Leila+Sokhey&pg=PA170|title=Musings & Memories: Vol (I)|date=2004|publisher=Lancer Publishers|isbn=978-81-7062-275-8|pages=170|language=en}}</ref> Menaka opened a residential school outside Bombay in [[Khandala, Satara|Khandala]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Swaminathan|first=Chitra|date=2018-05-17|title=Madame Menaka choreography movement to highlight process of visualisation|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/dance/menaka-broke-new-ground-with-her-creative-oeuvre/article23913926.ece|access-date=2021-11-24|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> named Nrityalayam.<ref name=":1">Ganapathi, K. [https://www.insaindia.res.in/BM/BM4_7614.pdf "Sahib Singh Sokhey 1887–1971"] ''Indian National Science Academy Biographical Memoirs:'' 148-149.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Walker|first=Margaret E.|title=India's Kathak dance in historical perspective|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-58832-2|location=London|pages=119|oclc=952729440}}</ref> One of her students was her adopted daughter, dancer [[Damayanti Joshi]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2018-12-05|title=Damayanti Joshi|url=http://srutimag.blogspot.com/2018/12/damayanti-joshi.html|access-date=2021-11-24|website=Sruti Magazine}}</ref> who later published a book of photographs and memories of Menaka.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Joshi|first=Damayanti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qksAAAAIAAJ|title=Madame Menaka|date=1989|publisher=Sangeet Natak Akademi|language=en}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Leila Roy married [[Sahib Singh Sokhey]], a biochemist.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sahib Singh Sokhey (1887-1971)|url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/alumni/services/notable-alumni/alumni-in-history/sahib-singh-sokhey|access-date=2021-11-24|website=The University of Edinburgh|language=en}}</ref> Their large home at the Haffkine Institute in [[Parel]] included her dance studio and was frequently host to visiting scientists and artists.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Shah|first=D. C.|date=May 17, 1933|title=Interview with Menaka; True Art Must Transcend Technique|page=11|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.1031/page/10/mode/2up?q=Leila+Sokhey|access-date=November 24, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> "Imperious, unconventional, sympathetic, big-hearted, she charms all with her intelligence and understanding," wrote a contemporary. "Her artificialities of vivid make-up and finery in dress are superficial and skin-deep, so to speak; she is, at heart, genuinely natural and simple."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Venkatachalam|first=G.|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.505181|title=Dance In India|publisher=Nalanda Publications|location=Bombay|pages=35-39; quote on p. 37|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Following her husband's knighthood in 1946, she became Lady Sokhey. She died from [[Bright's disease]] in 1947, aged 47 years.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Katrak|first=K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxt_DAAAQBAJ&dq=Leila+Sokhey&pg=PA36|title=Contemporary Indian Dance: New Creative Choreography in India and the Diaspora|date=2011-07-26|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-230-32180-9|pages=36|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2 June 1947|title=Menaka, the Pioneer|page=4|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.11521/page/3/mode/2up?q=Leila+Sokhey|access-date=November 24, 2021|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> The [[University of Mumbai]] awards a Menaka Trophy for excellence in Kathak dance.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==

* [http://menaka-archive.org/en/ The Indian Ballet Menaka in Europe 1936-38], a website and database covering Menaka's company's European tour, including news accounts, ephemera, photos, and rare film clips
* [http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/01/film-dances-of-madame-menaka-and-menaka.html Cinema Nritya], a dance scholar's blog that featured long, well-sourced and illustrated essays on Madame Menaka
* Saraswat, Shweta. [https://escholarship.org/content/qt8st886mh/qt8st886mh_noSplash_887e60c87af15c52676c7e45ad9ff998.pdf "Constructing Diasporic Identity Through Kathak Dance: Flexibility, Fixity, and Nationality in London and Los Angeles"] (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 2019): 45-46, 108-110
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madame Menaka}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1947 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Barisal]]
[[Category:Indian dancers]]
[[Category:Indian choreographers]]
[[Category:Kathak dancers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women]]

Madame Menaka - Revision history

AtenaLabsCBDReviews at 06:15, 30 March 2026