Temple Dance
Saturday night, when all Eastern Orthodox believers were preparing to celebrate Old New Year’s, a ritual of praying to the gods of India was taking place on the stage of the Teacher’s Home in Kyiv. To the layman, the sight was very much like a scene from a Bombay Studios musical. The dancer, a woman clad in a colorful weightless attire, with small bells attached to her ankles, was performing a prayer dance to an exotic tune. However remote from Ukraine, with legends mostly unknown here, the packed audience at the former Central Rada understood the language of gestures, postures, and facial expressions; the dancer was telling a story of love and hatred, about Shakti, the supreme goddess of love; the story of love between the god Krishna and shepherdess Radha; and about Vishnu’s ten incarnations. Interestingly, the Indian ambassador and his daughter were the only Hindu spectators in the audience.
Pratibha Jena Singh arrived on her second visit to Kyiv invited by Andriy Lappa, head of the all- Ukrainian Yoga Association. Her first visit three years ago was to conduct a seminar on Odissi, one style of Hindu temple dances. This time the devotees of Indian culture witnessed a unique Odissi performance coming from an almost primary source. Why almost? Because Pratibha is a faithful pupil of her father, Guru Nath Jena who carried out incredible work to restore the dancing style, relying on ancient books and statues at the Sun Temple of Konarak, mostly known for its sculptural illustrations for the Kama Sutra. The Odissi style, mostly practiced in Orissi, a state in eastern India, was forbidden to be performed by the devadasis temple priestesses for two centuries when under Islamic rule. It was preserved by training boys in the art. They would perform wearing women’s clothes, not in temples but in public places. Naturally, this caused the style to lose much of its original splendor, and the dance itself became more primitive. Pratibha’s father, who had learned Odissi when a small boy, began to study and restore the style in depth in 1959. At present, Surenda Nath Jena is a great authority on the art in India and abroad. There were his pupils in the audience that Saturday night, among them Mrs. Lianne Guillaume of the French Cultural Center in Kyiv (she had most actively participated in the arrangements for the Indian dancer’s visit).
The art of traditional temple dance is extremely popular in India, specially among the younger generation. Mr. Vidya Bhushan Soni, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to Ukraine, told The Day before the performance:
“The dancing art is as important to us as everything else dedicated to God. Millions of our young people strive to master this art at special schools. My daughter also dances, although hers is the South Indian style; she teaches it too. Odissi is more popular in the east of our country. I am very glad to see the daughter of an esteemed guru of that dance perform tonight. We are happy that so many people in Ukraine take an interest in Indian culture, so we try to support all such performances.”
An ability to convey to the audience the dual contents of the dance, sensual and religious, is considered the greatest attainment of the Odissi style. The restored art combines traditions from the distant past, when the dance was a form of worship of the god Jagannath [also known as Juggernaut], Indian spiritual poetry, folk heritage, and modern elements. Pratibha is considered one of few dancers capable of demonstrating her father’s style with such subtlety, spiritual purity, and force. At a press conference, she explained that the Odissi dance has the same meaning, even if performed onstage. It is a prayer, so polishing the choreography is the performer’s way to achieve spiritual perfection. It is a pity that those in the concert audience could not watch Pratibha’s transformation at the press conference when she decided to show what certain step meant. Even though she was to convey purely formal information, the dancer said she was sorry her sari was somewhat straining on her movements. Then she froze for several seconds and touched the place on her forehead where the mystical third eye is. After that she squatted, straightened, and no one present could recognize her eyes! Only a few moments ago radiating calm friendliness, now they were ablaze, staring past us, somewhere far away, close to her god. This is why many in the audience, watching her dance, may have failed to perceive the ease with which her face underwent innermost transformations. Now she was the formidable Shiva, frowning ominously, eyes open wide, then the beautiful Kali marveling at her own reflection in the mirror. It was not dramatic identification, but a state of mind.
Vadym Dyshkant, a drama critic who has spent many years studying Oriental religions and philosophies, shared his impressions: “Not so long ago, a newspaper suggested that I write about the crisis of the modern theater, a topic much favored over the past decade. Tonight we saw art and philosophy all in a dance and no crisis whatsoever. The people creating and performing it don’t know about any crisis, either. They put their heart in it and we saw how profoundly aware they are of their relationship with the Absolute. The gestures and movements seem the same, yet every day the performer fills them with new emotions called rasa. Life is perceived as a lasting joy, blissful communication with God. We, in contrast, have turned this joy into a struggle, so we are constantly in a state of crisis, be it the theater, politics or economy.”
Olivier Guillaume, cultural attach О of the French Embassy, spent ten years in India with his wife. Both had watched Pratibha’s numerous performances. “I liked her tonight very much,” he told The Day. “Of course, the audience is different, people couldn’t understand every gesture and the music was on tape, for she usually dances to live accompaniment, yet Pratibha made the best of it. You could see the best sample of the style. I think the Kyiv audience liked it, too.”
During the week Pratibha conducted master classes at the Ideal Sports Complex on Pechersky u zviz. She promises that, if many are willing to master this beautiful dance, she will visit Kyiv every six months to support such clubs.
