A Tribute to Julia Maxwell

Julia Maxwell passed away peacefully at the age of 81 on August 15, 2024. Juliaji was the first wife of Pandit Chitresh Das. She met him in the late 1960’s when she went to India to study dance and was learning from Panditji’s Guruji, Pandit Ram Narayan Mishra and father, Nrityacharya Prahald Das.

Panditji was brought to the U.S. by the University of Maryland on a Whitney Fellowship in 1970, after which the great musician Ustad Ali Akbar Khan brought him to California to establish a dance program at the Ali Akbar College of Music. Panditji and Juliaji married in late 1971.

For the 15 years they were married and worked together, Juliaji developed support and advocacy for Panditji’s work in the U.S. This was the 70’s and 80’s and they faced ignorance, racism, and a tremendous lack of awareness of Indian classical dance, and anything being performed by artists who were not white and particularly of another culture. In spite of the challenges Pandit Chitresh Das and the Chitresh Das Dance Company gained major acclaim. Juliaji worked with Panditji and others in the Company, who also put in a great deal of work, and ultimately, the legacy that is now thriving and growing today owes a great deal to her. Juliaji pushed through barriers to help educate about kathak in the United States.

When Panditji left the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1980, Juliaji worked to set up the nonprofit Chhandam Chitresh Das Dance Company and secured the first grants for kathak, she attended conferences to advocate for kathak, Panditji’s work, and for the Chitresh Das Dance Company. She developed innovative programs such as “Dance with Chitresh” that enabled Americans, primarily in Northern California, but this extended to throughout the U.S., to connect with kathak, an artform almost completely unknown at the time. Likely one of her most enduring legacy’s will be the publication “Chitresh” that she produced. It is a remarkable piece of work that showcases Pandit Chitresh Das’ history, the history of kathak, and the incredible critical review Pandit Das and the Chitresh Das Dance Company were receiving from local and national and international performances.

Juliaji was also integral in securing Panditji’s position as a professor at the Ethnic Dance Studies, or Dance Ethnology program at San Francisco State University. The program that Pandit Chitresh Das pioneered at San Francisco State University starting in 1988, under the leadership of Professor Notsizi Cayou, became the first University accredited Kathak course in the United States. We send our heartfelt condolences to Juliaji’s family and are eternally grateful for all she did and gave.

By Celine Schein Das

-August 29, 2024