Found: Sharon Lowen's Odissi Dance in Swarnakamalam (Telugu, 1988)

In my post on Bhanupriya's classical dances in Swarna Kamalam, I noted to my astonishment that there was supposed to be a scene in the film after Bhanupriya's "Cheri Yashodaku" hotel number where American-born Odissi dancer Sharon Lowen danced Odissi!  None of the copies of the film I'd seen (EVP DVD, Universal DVD, TeluguOne's YouTube upload) included Lowen's dance.  I couldn't imagine why it would be cut out, and I promptly put the scene on the top of my "holy grail" list.

I'm happy to announce that the scene has been found, and it's all thanks to commenter and friend Gaddeswarup who graciously took the time to have the scene converted and sent to me (thank you!!) after discovering it.  I'm so excited!  Take a look (note: the quality is fairly low, and there is a short glitch near the beginning) (EDIT: Better-quality version linked below March 2014, see old video for reference):

Bhanupriya's irritated head-bob at Venkatesh (I'll refer to them by their real names) starts out the number on a humorous note, but it quickly shifts tone to reveal a thoroughly classical Odissi performance by Sharon Lowen framed by an idol of Lord Jagannath.  Her performance is intercut with shots of Bhanupriya dreaming of dancing Odissi herself (which is at odds with her consistently-irritated expression throughout the performance).  Bhanupriya's attempt at the s-shaped Tribhangi posture at 1:55 is extremely stiff compared to Sharon's gracefulness.  There's something about Sharon's performance that seems to be not in top form here and almost as if they have her dancing too quickly.  I like some of her other TV performances a little better (see the end of the post).  But for an outsider, I think she does a fantastic job.

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15 comments Odissi, Sharon Lowen

Dance in Early Indian Cinema: Some Video Evidence

What was dance in early Indian cinema like?  It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I considered this question worthy of pursuing video evidence of.  I had read how the vast majority of India's silent and early sound cinema was either lost or destroyed in fires with the teensy remainder securely locked up in places like the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) with occasional public screenings.  Certainly not viewable anywhere online, I assumed. But I was wrong!

When I recently learned about IndiaVideo.org's lovely "Celebrating 100 Years of Bollywood" series (thanks Gaddeswarup for your comment!), I was thrilled to see publicity pictures from India's earliest silent cinema, Pundalik (1912), clips from the first official indigenous Indian feature film Raja Harishchandra (1913), and also pictures from India's first sound film Alam Ara (1931).  I hadn't realized this year is the start of Indian Cinema's Centenary celebrations (meaning Indian cinema is in it's 100th year of "life" which will culminate in its 100th birthday in May 2013)!

Through recommend videos on the YouTube sidebar, I quickly learned that presumably non-professional YouTubers have uploaded Raja Harishchandra (1913, in the form of the 1967 National Film Archive documentary, D.G. Phalke, The First Indian Film Director 1870-1944) and Kaliya Mardan (1919). Each upload looks absolutely authentic due to many scenes matching screencaps found at the NFAI and in books about silent Indian cinema.  Both videos were uploaded in the past few months, and I assume it's not a coincidence that the NFAI just last month released a DVD of both films (Raja Harishchandra in partial form with only the surviving reels, and they added a third film, the 1931 Bengali silent, Jamai Babu).  Perhaps as the DVD was in the making, some of the prints were "leaked" and folks outside of the official process uploaded them for public view?  I'm curious if the DVD prints are different from what is online, especially since Kaliya Mardan looks like it came from a VHS tape with the tracking lines at the bottom. (Update 2019: Linked to new version of Kaliya Mardan.)

Raja Harischandra (1913)

Kaliya Mardan (1919)

As one would expect of me, I immediately noticed the dances in these films!  In Raja Harishchandra, beginning about 36 minutes in a character (Tukaram?) begins playing what looks like hand cymbals and then an energetic group of men can be see moving down the street rhythmically moving from side to side and jumping up and down with religious devotion.  I've been told they are dancing to a Bhajan which is a characteristic of the Bhakti movement.  While this isn't quite meant to be a "dance" in and of itself, in Kaliya Mardan the dances, while in a devotional setting, are clearly and distinctly dance!  Two unmistakable folk dances surrounding Krishna are in the film: one male-focused dance with sticks at 28:16 and the other a female-only dance at 35:40 with what appears to be tree branches, rope and/or sticks.  There are also expressive depictions by the women starting at 31:15.  I'm completely surprised to see such early filmic representations of dance!

Kaliya Mardan's Folk Dances

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10 comments Busby Berkeley, Early Dances, Research, Vedantam Raghavayya