Guru Gopinath is an epic personality of Indian dancing in the twentieth century. He was born on June 24, 1908, at Champakkulam in Kerela.
Guru Gopinath started learning Kathakali at the age of thirteen. After rigorous training for over twelve years he mastered himself in Kathkali. The most remarkable thing which he did was make Kathkali more accessible to teachers, students and audiences. He brought some changes in ‘Oriental dance’, ‘Kathkali Natanam’ and later in ‘Kerela Natanam’ to make it more fascinating in today’s world.
He is considered as a creative genius who projected Indian style of dancing to the outer world as early as in the beginning of 1930s. He proved that Indian dancing is quite appropriate to the language of humanity to the modern world. For his contribution to the Indian dance he was conferred D.Litt. degreeby Rabindra Bharathi University in Kolkata in 1972.