Kathak (Hindi: कथक) is one of the eight forms of Indian classical dances, originated from Uttar Pradesh, India. This dance form traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or storytellers. Its form today contains traces of temple and ritual dances, and the influence of the bhakti movement. From the 16th century onwards it absorbed certain features of Persian dance and Central Asian dance which were imported by the royal courts of the Mughal era.

The name Kathak is derived from the Sanskrit word katha meaning story, and katthaka in Sanskrit means he who tells a story, or to do with stories. The name of the form is properly कत्थक katthak, with the geminated dental to show a derived form, but this has since simplified to modern-day कथक kathak. kathaa kahe so kathak is a saying many teachers pass on to their pupils, which is generally translated, 's/he who tells a story, is a kathak', but which can also be translated, 'that which tells a story, that is 'Kathak.'

Chitresh Das (Devanagari: चित्रेश दास) (born November 9, 1944) is a classical dancer of the North Indian style of Kathak. Born in Calcutta, Das is a performer, choreographer, composer, and educator. He was instrumental in bringing Kathak to the U.S. and is credited with firmly establishing Kathak amongst American dancers and the Indian diaspora. In 1979, Das established the Chhandam School of Kathak and the Chitresh Das Dance Company in California. In 2002, he founded Chhandam Nritya Bharati in India. Today, with over ten branches of Chhandam worldwide, Das continues to teach dance as a way of life, a path for attaining self-knowledge and as a service to society.

Pandit Das continues to perform and teach to audiences across the globe, frequently touring through India, North America and Europe. He is well known for his virtuosic footwork, rhythmic adeptness, compelling storytelling, as well as his own innovation of “Kathak Yoga”.

Chitresh Das was born in Calcutta, West Bengal to parents Nrityacharya Prohlad Das and Smt. Nilima Das. His parents founded “Nritya Bharati,” one of India’s first institutions for dance that housed teachers of several classical and folk styles. Prohlad Das, himself a dance scholar and choreographer, used traditional dance forms to express modern issues, such as in his revolutionary work “Abhyudaya” (meaning “awakening”) staged before Indian Independence in 1947. Das frequently cites his mother, Nilima Das, on having a profound impact on his life as a dancer, often stating, “mother is the first guru”.

Brijmohan Mishra popularly known as Pandit Birju Maharaj (born February 4, 1938) is currently the leading exponent of the Lucknow Kalka-Bindadin gharana of Kathak dance in India. He is a descendant of the legendary Maharaj family of Kathak dancers, including his two uncles, Shambhu Maharaj and Lachhu Maharaj, and his father and guru, Acchan Maharaj. Even though dancing is his first love, he also has an excellent command over Hindustani classical music and is an accomplished vocalist as well. He took Kathak to new heights by choreographing new Kathak dance dramas.He is also the founder of kalashram. He has toured extensively across the globe, given thousands of performances and held hundreds of workshops for kathak students.

After working along with his uncle, Shambhu Maharaj at Bhartiya Kala Kendra, later the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, he remained head of the latter, for several years, till his retirement in 1998 when he opened his own dance school, Kalashram, also in Delhi.

Birju Maharaj was born in the house of noted Kathak exponent, Jagannath Maharaj, popularly known as Acchan Maharaj of Lucknow Gharana, who served as court dancer in Raigarh princely state. Birju was trained by his uncles, Lachhu Maharaj and Shambhu Maharaj and his father, and he gave his first recital at the age of seven. On 20 May 1947, his father died when he was nine . After a few years of struggle, his family moved to Delhi.

Kumudini Lakhia (born 1930) is an Indian Kathak dancer and choreographer based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where she founded Kadamb School of Dance and Music, an institute of Indian dance and music in 1967.

A pioneer in contemporary Kathak dance, she is credited for moving away from the solo form of Kathak starting in the 1960s, by turning it into a group spectacle, and also innovations like taking away traditional stories and adding contemporary storylines into Kathak repertoire.

She began her career dancing with Ram Gopal as he toured the West, bringing Indian dance to the eyes of people abroad for the first time, and then became a dancer and choreographer in her own right. She learned first from various gurus of Jaipur gharana, and then from Shambhu Maharaj.

She is particularly known for her multi-person choreographies. Some of her most famous choreographies include Dhabkar (Pulse), Yugal (The Duet), and Atah Kim (Where Now?), which she performed at the annual Kathak Mahotsav in Delhi in 1980. Dance critic Sunil Kothari later noted, "Those who witnessed the performance were taken aback by the sheer power of Kathak cast in an unusual mould. There was no Krishna, no Radha, no river banks of Jamuna, no bowers of Brindavan, no stealing of butter and no females looking seductively through the ghoonghat. And yet, for the purists, the classicists, there was no room for complaint...". In each of these, she presented the Kathak dance form in a way that had never been seen before, and which at the time had some purists up in arms. However, these choreographies are now considered classic, and many of the innovations she premiered in them have become so ingrained in Kathak performance that people are unaware that they were once just that: innovations. She was also a choreographer in the Hindi film, Umrao Jaan (1981), along with Gopi Krishna.