UNIVERSITY academics have teamed up with one of India's biggest dance stars to help recruit more performing arts students.

Dance professor Vincent Cacalano, from Manchester Metropolitan University, has travelled from Crewe to Kolkata for a dance celebration event tomorrow.

He is choreographing and performing pieces alongside Bollywood dance star Tanusree Shankar. It will feature up to 30 dancers, who will be exploring a fusion of eastern and western dancing styles.

The show will be followed by a reception dinner for key figures from the Indian arts community, business, and other institutions.

MMU hopes to use the new links to attract more international students to its performing arts degrees. They will be studying at its new performing arts centre in Crewe.

Errim Mahmoud, director of MMU International, said: "We want to become the university Indian students think of when considering studying performing arts in the UK. Forging educational exchanges is a great way to do this. However, as well as this, we want to see what we can learn from our Indian partners and what we can teach them. It's very much an exchange of ideas."

The evening of dance will take place in Kolkata and guests are set to include the British Deputy High Commissioner. It is being sponsored by the Indian Education Times.