Queen Harish Explained

Queen Harish
Birth Name:Harish Kumar
Birth Place:Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India
Death Place:Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Occupation:Dancer
Known For:Rajasthani folk dances
Children:2

Harish Kumar (1979 – 2 June 2019) popularly known as Queen Harish was a folk dancer from Rajasthan, India. A person who worked towards revival of Rajasthani folk dances,[1] his performances included various folk dance forms from Rajasthan.

Biography

Harish Kumar was born in 1979, in a carpenter family in Suthar community in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. He started dancing at the age of 13.[2] Harish, who lost his parents, started drag dancing to take care of his sisters.[2] Inspired by 'Annu Master', the first drag performer in the Jaisalmer region, he started learning drag dance under him.[2] He practiced American tribal style belly dance to make his body more capable of all feminine movements.[3]

Harish had performed Ghoomar, Kalbelia, Chang, Bhavai, Chari, and other folk dances of the Rajasthan state, in nearly 60 countries.[4] His performance was one of the highlights of the annual Jaipur Literary Fest.[5] He has participated in Raqs Congree in Brussels, Belly Dancing Championship in Seoul and Desilicious in New York City.[6] He has appeared in the reality television show 'India's Got Talent' and several Bollywood movies including Appudappudu (2003), Jai Gangaajal (2016) and The Accidental Prime Minister (2019).[7] [8] In 2007, he starred in the documentary When the Road Bends… Tales of a Gypsy Caravan by American filmmaker Jasmine Dellal.[9] [10] In collaboration with the government of Rajasthan, he ran a daily evening show at Jaisalmer called The Queen Harish Show.[11] He was also a choreographer with over two thousand students in Japan alone.[4]

Personal life and death

Harish was married and had two sons.[12] He died at the age of 39, on 2 June 2019, in a road accident on a highway in Kaparda village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan.[13]

Notes and References

  1. News: Farewell, Queen Harish – India's most famous drag queen . Times of India Blog . 21 June 2019.
  2. News: Obituary Queen Harish, India's 'Dancing Desert Drag Queen' . The Wire.
  3. Web site: Blush.me . Blush . en . 7 February 2022 . 7 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220207061824/https://www.blush.me/cheers/something-inside-realised-glorious-performing-woman-queen-harish . dead .
  4. News: Jaipur diary: Rajasthan mourns folk dancer Queen Harish . The New Indian Express. Rajesh. Asnani. 6 June 2019. 16 May 2022.
  5. News: Swaminathan . Chitra . Dance like Queen Harish . The Hindu . 6 June 2019 . en-IN.
  6. Web site: Queen Harish of Jaisalmer, Traditional Dancers from Jaisalmer . www.jaisalmeronline.in . en.
  7. News: Who was Queen Harish Kumar? . DNA India . en.
  8. Web site: Harish . IMDb.
  9. Web site: Roy . Sandip . Queen Harish dances in drag . SFGATE . 22 July 2008.
  10. News: Rajasthani folk dancer Queen Harish dies in road accident . The Indian Express . 3 June 2019 . en.
  11. News: Queen Harish: The Man, The Woman, The Performer . eNewsroom India . 4 March 2018.
  12. News: Soparrkar . Sandip . Queen Harish: The man, the woman & the mystery will stay the same forever . The Asian Age . 10 June 2019.
  13. News: ഡെസ്ക് . വെബ് . നാടോടി നർത്തകൻ ക്വീൻ ഹാരിഷ് വാഹനാപകടത്തിൽ മരിച്ചു. www.madhyamam.com . 2 June 2019 . ml.