I just took a backward glance to meet a request for information regarding my choreography and innovation in Odissi for a publication for Odias. It has truly been a privilege to have been embraced by rasikas over the decades, allowing me to share this art nationally and internationally and play a small part in moving tradition forward. I never felt any need to innovate for the sake of innovation, as the choreography of the greatest innovator of Odissi, main architect of the neo-classical revival of the last century, my guru Padmavibhushan Kelucharan Mohapatra, provided enough repertoire to perform for a lifetime. However, I have always been willing to create new works when justified or called upon by circumstances.
Odissi dance traditionally, and logically, was performed only in Sanskrit and Odia up until the last several decades. Jayadev's Geet Govinda in Sanskrit was sung and danced at Jagannath Puri till banned by the British and the medieval Bhakti movement brought the spiritual poetry of Odisha to the public through the dance of boys-dressed-as-girls gotipuras.
Post Independence, dance has played a significant role in both National Integration and Unity in Diversity. Having left the temples and market-places, Odissi evolved into a performance art enjoyed by a wide variety of audiences in many places.
Language and location have been my primary motivations for creating new choreography. Invocations specific to the audience and space prompted a Surya Mangalacharan for Science and Solar Energy Conferences, Padma Patra Mangalacharan for Tiruvanantapuram in Kerala and Ganga, Shiva and Hanuman Stutis for Varanasi's Kashi and Swatch Ganga Utsavs and Sankat Mochan Hanuman Jayanti.
A Tansen-Tyagaraja Festival in Lucknow and Tyagaraj Festivals in Hydrabad and Delhi prompted my choice of Nidhi Sala Sukhama, where the poet is invited to the court and asks his deity which riches, material or spiritual, are of greater value, an evergreen theme that appealed to me. Besides the popular Tyagaraja's Kshera Sagara , another choreography I've done in Telegu was for one of Swapnasundari's festivals using music composed by her mother Smt Sarla Rao for Yeppuduganirado by Annamacharya.
I don't feel a disconnect for an Odia vocalist to sing in Hindi or Braj Bhasha, but whenever I have performed abhinaya in Tamil, Telegu or Malayalam, I have always had a vocalist familiar with that tradition singing to Odissi mardala percussion. It does mean contracting a larger orchestra than usual for a performance and extra rehearsals on arrival in whichever city south of the Vindiyas the performance is to be held, but it is a pleasure to work with talented local vocalists. The connection and communication with the audience is certainly enhanced by the effort to add poetry that they already know and love, interpreted through Odissi. For tours in Malaysia, where the Indian origin population is primarily Tamilian, Enneramun Kirtan of Gopalakrishna Bharati in Tamil and Krishna Nee Begane Baro by Vyasa Raya in Sanskrit were much appreciated.
Swati Tirunal's Aliveni Endu Seyyu expresses a similar sringar ras to that of Geet Govinda and I was happy to offer this at Kerala Kalamandalam's Diamond Jubilee Festival. For my next visit to Kerala I felt that it would be good to shift to another bhava and decided to interpret vatsalya rasa through the beloved Malayalam lullaby Omana Tingal. After the mother shows the beauty of the child through growing, playing and learning, the added tag was the mother sending the youth off to the guru as she remembers when he was a baby through the lullaby refrain. Doordarshan has sponsored and produced many intersections between language and dance, especially when it was strongly committed to excellence in the performing arts at the studios of the Central Production Centre. Doordarshan's Chhayan Series comparing Odia poetry of Banamali with Hindi poetry of Raskan was my motivation to choreograph Bata Chhada, Dinu Dinu Nanda and Tore Sarana Gali Re Murali. Through Banamali's poetry in in Odiss and Raskan's interpreted in Kathak, the viewer saw the same concepts expressed, a perfect example of Unity in Diversity.
Doordarshan national programs were also the motivation to choreograph Kashmiri and Dogra poetry in Odissi and in Bengali, Phoolon and Mandal Banayein by Parmanand and Tagore's Nrityero Tale Tale and Nazrul's Sosane Jagichhe Shyama Ma.
The challenge of performing and choreographing abhinaya in languages that are not my mother tongue is something I had to overcome as a student. I enjoyed delving deeply into the connotation as well as denotation of each word, the ethos of the poet and the context of time and place in which he or she wrote. I take pleasure in the opportunity to bring to visual life shlokas and sahitya that my audience may recite daily or know from traditional dance compositions in other styles. To chew a pearl in search of Ram while dancing at Sanchat Mochan is an altogether difference internalization of experience than hearing the story.
I understand and appreciate the objections of some Odias to Odissi being performed to other languages than Odiya or Sanskrit based on the history of eastern India linguistically. It is thanks to the efforts of Fakir Mohan Senapati and others at the turn of the 19th-20th century that that language was saved from the risks of possible extinction. I was touched by the strong objection of an Odia rasika to including Govinda Das and Chandidas's Bengali poetry along with Jayadev's Sanskrit and other regional poets in my Nectar from the Blue Lotus - Evening of Bhakti Poetry at Kamani Auditorium decades ago. Clearly, that he did not mind the other poetic languages as much as Bengali on the basis that there were sufficient Odiya poets from whom to choose poetry. I valued his passion, only wishing that he could believe that there is no threat to the Odisha's great culture by allowing the dance to become part of pan-India Sanskriti.
Living outside of Odisha, there is a logic to including some abhinaya in languages that are understood by a local audience. Occasions calling for new works in Hindi have included choreographing Veena Vardini Varade by Nirala as well as the modern poetry Bale Deep Chatur Nari Ne and Tumul Kalahal by Jayashankar Prasad, Yasoda Hari Paine Julaai by Surdas and even Vaisnava Jana Ko by Mahatma Gandhi.
I unwittingly chose the upbeat Mira Bhajan, Sakhi Ri Laj Bairan Bhai, for a Hindi speaking audience without realizing that Braj Bhasha was almost as difficult as Sanskrit or Odia for the audience to catch. Of course, the text is communicated through the dance in any case. I have always felt that it is my responsibility to speak through movement rather than assuming the words will inform the audience of what I am expressing.
Though English is my mother tongue, this hasn't been a motivated to use it for Odissi. When asked to dance to a Sarojini Naidu poem years ago, I had the luxury of choosing my dance vocabulary from Odissi, Chhau, Manipuri or Modern Dance and I felt Modern Dance was most suitable for interpreting the text. For The Song of Solomon from the Jewish Bible, in which human love is used as a metaphor for the divine, I performed in Odissi to spoken English accompanied by Odissi music on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the first Jewish synagogue in Mumbai.
Having opportunities to create new work, to play a small part in contributing to moving the Odissi tradition forward and having the live musical accompaniment and friends to support these efforts, were the major reasons I decided to remain in India , at least as long as I felt welcome and was doing worthwhile creative work. I am grateful to all of you for making this so.
Sharon Lowen is a respected exponent of Odissi, Manipuri and Mayurbhanj and Seraikella Chau whose four-decade career in India was preceded by 17 years of modern dance and ballet in the US and an MA in dance from the University of Michigan. She can be contacted at sharonlowen.workshop@gmail.com
