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  • Performing Konarak, Performing Hirapur: Documenting The Odissi of Guru Surendranath Jena, and: Interpreting and (Re)Constructing Indonesian Dance and Music Heritage
  • Pallabi Chakravorty
Performing Konarak, Performing Hirapur: Documenting The Odissi of Guru Surendranath Jena by Alessandra Lopez y Royo. 2007. SOAS, University of London, AHRC Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance Performance. £10.00.
Interpreting and (Re)Constructing Indonesian Dance And Music Heritage by Alessandra Lopez y Royo. 2007. SOAS, University of London, AHRC Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance Performance. £10.00.

Two recently produced films by Alessandra Lopez y Royo focus on dance innovation in two different cultural contexts, each demonstrating how new aesthetics are forged within and between traditional practices. Both films are well crafted, thoughtfully edited, and will be very useful for pedagogical purposes. They illustrate dance innovations not in terms of rupture or as dismantling classical canons but rather as continuous reinventions existing in relation to tradition.

In Performing Konarak, Performing Hirapur, [End Page 92] for example, Royo merges archaeology, dance, and art history to narrate the story of the distinctive Odissi style created by the late Surendranath Jena. This richly documented film does several things. First, it gives us a glimpse of the multiple strands of dance practices from Orissa, situated on the eastern coast of India, that were woven together to construct the “classicism” of modern day Odissi. Second, it shows that the modern history of Odissi parallels the ideology of dance classicism in India that drew on Sanskrit sources such as Natyashastra, Abhinaya darpana, and, specifically for Odissi, Abhinayachandrika. Third, it shows the deeper Hindu-ization of various indigenous/tribal dance practices due to the powerful impact of bhakti movement in medieval India. The last point is significant for understanding the contribution of Guru Jena’s work and for engaging with the larger context of the political and cultural complexities of Indian dances.

Royo uses lively visuals cross-cutting the local context of Orissa, the urban dance classes in Delhi, and the temple sculptures of Konarak and Hirapur for weaving her narrative. The visuals show the roots of Odissi that combine the Gotipua, Mahari, Akhada, and Nacha traditions. She mentions the works of important male gurus such as Debaprasad Das, Pankaj Charan Das, Surendranath Das, Surendranath Jena, and the legendary Kelucharan Mahapatra, who shaped the repertoire of modern day Odissi. The viewer also gets a sense of the institutionalization of Odissi from its community context in Orissa to the urban centers in Delhi, Kolkata, and Bhubaneshwar. The lack of a female voice in shaping the dance repertoire is not insignificant here, despite the fact that important female dancers and choreographers such as Sanjukta Panigrahi, Aloka Kanungo, Madhavi Mudgal, Protima Bedi, and Ileana Citaristi, among others, popularized the form.

But the most significant aspect of the film is Royo’s documentation of Guru Jena’s work, which draws on the temple sculptures of Konarak and Hirapur, and the relative marginalization of his work due to his aesthetic choices. She uses five signature pieces by Guru Jena, all rendered by his daughters, of which I will discuss Konarakanti and Shakti Rupa Yogini to analyze his particular approach. Both these compositions merge architecture and sculpture to give expression to a distinct Indian aesthetic that reveals the intimate dialogue between sculpture and architecture in temples and in dances. Royo uses the term choreography in relation to Jena’s works, but I am curious to know whether Jena used the term himself. Now that choreography has assumed a hegemonic status in the global discourse on non-Western dance practices, it is difficult to trace how dance language evolved in different cultural contexts. A survey of dance criticism that has appeared in Indian English newspapers since the 1950s is a case in point. In this regard interviews with Jena and his students/daughters would have been insightful.

In his work Konarakanti Jena re-imagines the Odissi repertoire and connects it to the temple structure at Konarak. He expresses through this and his other works the intricate visual designs that capture the relationships of the various celestial figures, animals, and everyday activities. Mostly expressed in linear or circular movements that reflect the architectural...

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