Performing Konarak, Performing Hirapur: documenting the odissi of Guru Surendranath Jena
From May 2005 to May 2006, I worked on a project, funded by the British Academy, which explored the 'transgressive' odissi of guru Surendranath Jena and its relationship with the two archaeological sites of Konarak and Hirapur, in Orissa (Eastern India). Working with Calcutta born, Brighton based film and videomaker (and odissi performer) Rajyashree Ramamurthi and her French husband Colin Waurzyniak, both responsible for the camera work and the editing, I have put together a DVD about Guru Surendranath Jena's odissi, entitled Performing Konarak, Performing Hirapur. Additional editing is by Sarah Bilby. The DVD is produced and distributed by the AHRC Research Centre for Cross-cultural Music and Dance Performance, who has given additional support to the project.
Photo: Rekha, one of Guru Surendranath Jena's daughters, at Konarak
About the DVD
In 2003 I had the opportunity to meet Pratibha Jena Singh and a number of her students, including Jaya Chattopadhyay and her sister Swaati, in New Delhi, at Triveni Kala Sangam, while researching odissi in the 21st century as part of one of the projects of the AHRC Research Centre for Crosscultural Music and Dance Performance. This is an inter-institutional body made up of the department of music at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the department of dance at the University of Surrey and the dance programme at the School of Arts, Roehampton University. Pratibha Jena is the eldest daughter of Guru Surendranath Jena, an extraordinary dance maker who has recreated single-handedly a style of odissi, different from the one acknowledged today as classical odissi. His odissi is based on the iconography of the nata mandapa (dance hall) of the Konarak temple, with the dance poses from the temple reinterpreted by him as dance movement units, turning the iconographic narratives into dances.
Guru Jena does not claim that his reconstruction is more authentic or purer than other styles of odissi; he acknowledges that his work is a reinterpretation of the dance iconography of the Konarak temple. But he has made a true effort to understand the dynamics of the dance/sculpture interface in the context of Indian dance performance and has created choreographies on that basis. He has also challenged current notions of femininity in odissi dance, creating compositions which explore the raudra (anger) and bhibatsa (disgust) sentiments, usually regarded as un-feminine and thus not suited to the neo-classicism of the dance: for this reason alone, his odissi is regarded as somewhat 'transgressive'. Pratibha Jena, a gifted performer and teacher, has helped Guru Surendranath with the teaching at Triveni Kala Sangam throughout the past decade , and is now in charge of the classes.
Soon after this meeting I engaged in more thorough research about this style of odissi, thanks to a grant awarded in 2004 by the British Academy. I did my research through observation and participation in classes and through interviews with Guru Surendranath Jena, his daughters and their students, throughout September 2004. I refer to this work as the first phase of my research.
In this first phase, I recorded through digital video and photography the teaching process, as distinct from the perfomance of the dance. It was not possible for me while I was in Delhi in 2004 to record Guru Jena’s full repertoire. He no longer dances, due to his frailty, and in general his daughters and his students give very few public performances. I assumed, at the time, that Guru Jena’s work was already in the public domain and accessible in a recorded form, since he is a known master of odissi, albeit a controversial one. However, though some of his work was recorded by the Sangita Nataka Akademi in New Delhi in the early 1990s, such recordings are on VHS tapes and are not easily accessible by the general public. The two videos at the Akademi are also rapidly deteriorating – a problem that more generally affects all analogue recording, which has a relatively limited life span.
Guru Surendranath Jena has been choreographing since the 1950s, but his work is being preserved and passed on solely through embodied memory.
As so much of his work is based on Konarak as also on the Hirapur yogini temple, in the second phase of my research, enabled by a new British Academy grant awarded in 2005, I decided to travel to Konarak and Hirapur with him, his daughters Pratibha, Rekha and Rama, and a small group of odissi musicians, to document the dances in his repertoire inspired by the two sites. Konarak and Hirapur were chosen as the location for the recording not because they would provide a pretty backdrop but because Guru Jena’s dances are based on the iconography and the architecture of these temples; Guru Jena’s repertoire has a special relationship with these temple sites, which are ‘activated’ through the choreographic endeavour. Thus viewing Guru Jena’s choreography in these surroundings can help to understand better the dance/architecture interface in odissi dance. Hopefully, this recording will be of value not only to dance scholars but to all those interested in Eastern Indian temple architecture and its dynamism – Guru Jena’s odissi choreography can provide a tool for understanding architecture in a visually dynamic form. In this sense, this project reconnects with an earlier project of mine, Dance and the architecture of the temple carried out with Adam Hardy and the students of the PRASADA unit at De Montfort University, Leicester (now at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff), which explored dance and the architecture of the Hindu temple.
To obtain a copy of the DVD, please contact SOAS bookshop. The DVD is part of a package of five different DVDs on Asian and African dance and music, all produced by the AHRC Research Centre for Cross-cultural Music and Dance Performance.
The documentary film can also be downloaded from the AHDS Performing Arts website (for PC users only).
This website presents material, not included in the DVD, taken from the informal chats and interviews which took place when we did our video-recording at the two temple sites, and it has images, also not included in the DVD, as well as additional video-clips. It thus complements the DVD and it goes further, in that it constitutes an on-going project. The video-clips you see here are of course of an inferior quality to those of the DVD; this is because they had to be greatly reduced in size, through compression and streaming.
As part of this ongoing project copies of articles and papers (by different authors) will also be uploaded as soon as they are completed. People are invited to contribute their thoughts. As pages are added, these will be listed below, under Contents. If you wish to post a comment and/or upload material please contact me by clicking on my name. Due to heavy spam the post-comment facility has been suspended, but if you email me I will post your comments myself.
Note: irrelevant or offensive material will not be posted
About Alessandra Lopez y Royo
Contents:
The hot chariot of the Sun God
A glimpse of the technique of Guru Surendranath Jena's odissi
Dances inspired by the Konarak temple site
The Sakti Rupa Yogini and Hirapur
Posted at Jul 05/2006 02:37AM:
It feels great to see that this Guru's work is getting documented. I think all of us who have tried to come closer to this wonderful person have always been told that it is a waste of time. In the International odissi festival 2001 at india Habitat Centre organized by bansi bilas, Guruji's daughter gave a wonderful performance with audience craving for more. Bansi Bials is organizing the second International Odissi Festival from 24-26 November 2006 at Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi. We have seminars, discussion in the morning, documentaries and movies in the afternoons and live performances in the evening. We are looking for reserach work done on various aspects of odissi dance, its relationship with architecture and literature. If any body is interested in participating or contributing to this event, Please get in otuch with leesamohanty@hotmail.com. I would love to hve have copy of the DVD and probably see if we can include during the afternoon slots.
thanks and regards, Leesa
Posted at Jul 12/2006 12:30AM:
Mrinalini Padhi
(Lawyer,Dancer & Drama Therapist for the disabled)
Dear Alessandra,
I was a student of Guru Surendranath Jena at Triveni Sangam for a very brief period more than 2 decades back.I could not adapt to his style of dance as I had my foundation in dance at Cuttack.Later on I learn't from Guru Mayadhar Rout and Guru Kelu Charan Mahapatra.I used to admire the uniqueness of his work.He used to tell me that this new style is my "Guru Dakshina" to my Guru.I could feem his passion for his work.I am extremely happy that you are taking the trouble to showcase his style of dance to the world.Good Luck and God Bless
Posted at Oct 23/2006 06:04AM:
Sunil Kothari: Dear Alessandra,
Many thanks for sending me the website ID...Now about your project:
I have quickly gone thorugh the text of your presentation and had an opportunity to see the DVD in Kolkata.
I wish to congratulate you for your sincere efforts to record Guru Surendra Nath Jena's choreographic works and teaching process.
Regards, Sunilbhai
Posted at Apr 21/2007 12:17AM:
Nirmal and Chitrita: Dear Alessandra,we congratulate you on the rich and creative information and video clips on the Jena style of Odissi you have placed on the humanities lab website of Stanford Uni.
Guru Surendra Nath Jena is our father and father-in-law respectively. We live in Sydney, Australia, where we practise the same style of dance and its related music (http://odcdance.tripod.com/). . Many have attempted to record Guruji's innovative style but very few have been able to do justice to his poignant and demanding art form, which, as you know, he developed through sheer determination and with very little support from the arts industry in India. We celebrate his endeavours and his style of Odissi and thank you for providing us with a wonderful record of his achievements.
Regards,
Nirmal Jena & Chitrita Mukerjee
Odissi Dance Company
Company
23 Burke Street, Chifley NSW 2036
Eml: odcsydney@yahoo.com.au
Posted at Oct 13/2007 03:43AM:
AL: GURU SURENDRANATH JENA PASSED AWAY ON 8TH OCTOBER 2007. OUR DEEPEST CONDOLENCES TO GURUJI'S FAMILY.
