Gina, Srimathi

Srimathi Gina was the performance name of Gina Blau (1906-1998), a Jewish-American dancer who was an early exponent of Indian Classical Dance in the United States. Earlier in her life, Gina had studied modern dance under Pearl Primus, Jean Erdman, and Eleanor King. She was also one of two women to graduate from St. John's Law School in New York City in 1929, but left her law practice in the 1930s to study Indian Classical Dance with Phupesh Guha. During the 1940s, she performed first with the dance troupe of the American dance ethnologist La Meri, and then with the Indian classical dancer Ragani Devi in New York.

From 1954 to 1955, Gina traveled to India to study Indian Classical Dance as well as the Tamil language. She first studied Bharatya Natyam with Guru Chockalingam Pillai in Madras, and then Kathakali with Guru Ravunni Nair in Malabar.

Gina then toured and performed around the United States as Srimathi Gina, and taught Indian Classical Dance in New York and elsewhere, including at colleges, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and the Eugene O'Neill National Theater for the Deaf. Gina was given the title of Natyakala Bushanam (Jewel of the Dance) by the Indian Institute of Fine Arts in Madras; she was the first non-Indian to receive the title.