Uday Shankar went to India in 1929 and formed his own dance troupe. Between 1932 and the 1960s, the troupe crisscrossed Europe. He brought his troupe to America in 1937. In 1938, he opened a dance school in Almora, U.P. calling it "Uday Shankar Indian Culture Center." The center was closed during World War II but it reopened in Kolkata after the war in 1965.