While we were video-recording at Konarak and Hirapur, in August 2005, we had plenty of opportunities to engage in discussions with Guru Surendranath Jena and his three daughters. Guru Surendranath Jena also has a son, Nirmal, active in Sydney, Australia.

The video-clips below have been taken from the interviews we recorded at Konarak. They reveal Guru Surendranath Jena's philosophy, his beliefs, his likes and dislikes. He is a mystic, who intensely feels the presence of the divine all around him.

We also took care to record his daughters' views, as they do not necessarily agree with him all the time! Guru Surendranath Jena spoke in Oriya and occasionally in Hindi; Pratibha, Rekha and Rama translated into English and added their own comments.

In the file marked Interview1 Guru Surendranath Jena and his daughters discuss the learning process - here Pratibha emphasises that practice is essential to create the body habitus and she never used videos as a learning tool. He then talks about his feelings towards group dancing; how he came to systematise his technique (after choreographing his dance pieces); and his relationship with audiences.

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In Interview2 Pratibha defines odissi as a dance form based on bhangis and emotion. The discussion then moves on to the poet Sarala Das and the 64 yoginis; the choreography of Sakti Rupa Yogini the dance piece which was inspired by Hirapur and the tantric yoginis; tantrism in Orissa and village life; and Guru Surendranath Jena's devotion to Devi and to the goddess Sarasvati, whom he believes spoke to him when he went, many years ago, on pilgrimage to one of the temples in the interior of Orissa and who gave him her blessings.

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In Interview3 Guru Surendranath Jena emphatically denies that when performing he ever distinguishes between temple and stage, as to him dance is a form of meditation, so all stages are temples. Pratibha however points out that his form of odissi is meant to be performed in an imaginary temple and thus it does not cover much space - the nata mandapa of Konarak was the stage he thought of when creating Konarak Kanti. Rekha then shares her delight at being able to dance at Konarak and what it has meant to her and moves on to comment on how difficult it was for all three of them to be his students, as he was an exacting teacher, unwilling to compromise - he expected more from them than he ever did from his other students.

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Interview4 is the last video-clip in this series. Here the three sisters continue to talk about their experience of being daughters and students; Pratibha was formally trained, whereas Rekha and Rama initially simply 'picked up' and only later their father imparted them the basics. He talks briefly about them as his students and Rama discusses her music training - she is a singer as well as a dancer. The discussion moves on to rasa and why Guru Surendranath Jena does not hesitate to portray anger and disgust in the dance, if he feels the situation requires the use of such sentiments in the abhinaya. He reiterates that dance to him is divine and recounts that when he was composing Sakti Rupa Yogini - he never uses the word "choreograph" - late at night, at Triveni, where he taught, he felt that the goddesses themselves were revealing the dance to him - he was the vessel, they gave him the dance.

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