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Classical dancer and teacher Indu Mitha, one of Pakistan’s foremost practitioners of the traditional Bharatanatyam style of dance, passed away on Monday, her daughter Tehreema Mitha confirmed to Images.

On Tuesday, a Facebook account appearing to belong to Tehreema posted, “Beloved wife, mother, nani, dadi and guru Indu Mitha passed away today, 31st August, 2026, in Dublin, Ireland. She gave her unconditional love to so many along with her love and joy of dance!”

Born to a Bengali Christian family in Lahore in 1929, Indu moved to Delhi along with her parents at Partition, where she learnt Bharatanatyam — a form of classical dance originating in India’s Tamil Nadu.

She taught dance in India before getting married and moving to Pakistan in 1951, where she continued taking disciples for decades — well into her 80s. She was awarded the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance in 2020 for her services to the arts.

Indu was the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary How She Moves in 2021, which followed her and her students as they prepared for her last dance recital before retirement.

The teacher later chastised the filmmakers for expressing their own ideas about her work rather than presenting it as it was. She said the documentary was not reflective of her own ideas or representative of her.

Tehreema carries on her legacy as a dancer and guru, with Indu once describing her daughter as “my pride and joy, and the heir to my dance legacy”.

Her daughter was, in Indu’s own words, “my only student fully qualified to teach my style”.

Now based in the US, Tehreema continues to live up to those wishes as a choreographer and dancer. She runs her own productions under the name Tehreema Mitha Dance Company.

Cover photo: Tehreema Mitha/Facebook