Perumanoor Gopinathan Pillai, more popularly known as Guru Gopinath (24 June 1908 – 9 October 1987) was a well known actor-cum-dancer. He is well regarded as the greatest preserver of the dance tradition. He is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Fellowship, and the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award. Significance Guru Gopinath was well tempered by traditional discipline, but he expanded the framework of tradition. He was instrumental in introducing and popularising Kathakali, the illustrious dance drama of Kerala, lying in obscurity, to the outer world. He is considered one of the epic personalities of Indian dancing in the 20th century like Uday Shankar. He carved out a contemporary style of dancing, classical in form but popular in appeal, through which the fame of Kathakali spread far and wide in the beginning of the 1930s. He showed how Indian dancing could handle themes other an than those from Hindu mythology. Indian classical dance is the language of humanity, the global language. He popularised it by choreographing dance and ballets having biblical social current and political themes. He was trained in both southern (Kaplingadan) and northern (Kalluvazhi) style of Kathakali. He was invited for higher studies when poet Vallathol Narayana Menon started Kerala Kalamandalam at Mulamkunnathukavu in Thrissur. He received training from masters in the field, such as Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon, Guru Kunchu Kurup and Guru Kavalappara Narayanan Nair. He studied Rasa Abhinaya under Natyaacharya Padma Shri Mani Madhava Chakkiyar. Famous Kathakali artist Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair and dancer Ananda Shivaram were then students in the first batch of Kalamandalam. He was dance partner to Ragini Devi, formerly Esther Luella Sherman, an American-born dancer from Michigan. Guru Gopinath and Ragini Devi made their first stage performance in Mumbai in December 1932. The success of this performance encouraged them for more stage shows and an all India tour, making performances and lecture- demonstrations on Indian classical dance. Kathakali and dancing were thus made popular, which was comprehensive to the layman and connoisseur alike. When Rabindranath Tagore saw young Gopinath's performance in early thirties he wrote an appreciation on the dancer: "Mr Gopinath is a real artist and I am sure there are not many who could rightfully take their stand by his side either in India or abroad. He brought to my mind glimpses of the great past when dancing was one of the most treasured