Credo of a Dancer - Part 1 l Who was Balasaraswati behind all the eulogies and accolades l MOPA
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2021
- ‘Credo of a Dancer’is an hour-long documentary specially produced by MOPA Foundation as part of an in-depth exhibition on T Balasaraswati during her birth centenary in 2019, in collaboration with Balasaraswati Institute of Performing Arts, Chennai. This is the 1st part of the documentary.
Look out for never-before-seen footage of Birju Maharaj, Ravi Shankar, Uday Shankar, Ra Ganapathy, Rukmini Devi and many others. These were shot in the 1970s but never saw the light of day.
So why Balasaraswati?
Hers is an important story - of hard work bordering on penance, uncompromising standards and sheer grit. As a young child, how did she bear the severe and relentless training under Kandappa and her mother? She is said to have collected dolls throughout her travels. It was her way of compensating for lack of a regular childhood, as she once hinted. How did it feel to have her way of life and system of beliefs suddenly outlawed? What was her fall back?
This documentary is a mission to facilitate connections between such stories and a world which is increasingly disconnected from its past. The situations or challenges Balasaraswati faced are the same we face or future generations will face - maybe in a different avatar or packaging - but a lot can be learnt from how she faced them.
Acknowledgements
Resource Material and Photographs
o Balasaraswati - Her Art and Life - by Douglas M. Knight Jr
o Sangeet Natak Akademi’s quarterly journal 1984
o Journal of the National Center for Performing Arts, Bombay
o Bala on Bharatanatyam - Compiled and Translated by S. Guhan; Published by The Sruti Foundation, Madras
o Sruti issues 23/23-S, 27-28, 1984 March issue - © Sruti Foundation
o Archives of The Hindu
o Archives of Dr V. Raghavan Centre for Performing Arts
o Translated excerpts from Aadal Paadal by Kalki: Kalai Sirakka, Konjan Sirikka
o Balasaraswati - by Narayana Menon; Published by the Inter-National Cultural Centre, New Delhi
o Balasaraswati - a publication of the Balasaraswati School of Music and Dance, USA
o The Music of Bharatanatyam - Doctoral Dissertation by Jon Higgins, Wesleyan 1973
Audio Excerpts
o Balasaraswati Institute of Performing Arts, Chennai
o World Music Archive, Wesleyan University, CT, USA
o Private collection of Ravindra Narayanan
Films
o Balasaraswati - Wesleyan University, 1962
o Bala - Directed by Satyajit Ray, Produced by the Government of India and National Centre for Performing Arts, Bombay
Video Excerpts
o Born to the Tradition: A Tribute to Bala - by Smita Shah; © Balasaraswati Institute of Performing Arts
o T Balasaraswati Documentary ©Aniruddha Knight 2006
o Luise Scripps - Tribute by Eva Soltes - vimeo.com/167272996
o Divine Legacy of Balasaraswati - with Luise Scripps and Bob Brown - vimeo.com/67805659
Interviews
produced by MOPA Foundation; ©MOPA Foundation
(T M Krishna, Aniruddha Knight, Usha Sivakumar, Ranjani Menon, Aggie Brenneman, Eva Soltes, Nandini Ramani)
Script and Voice Over
Savita Narasimhan
Digitisation and Videography
Prashanth Balaji and Nivedha Shankar
Video Editing and CG
Jackin Skims
MOPA thanks Kauvery Hospitals, Aim for Seva and Curatio for their support in this project.
Produced by
MOPA FOUNDATION ©2019 
Развлечения
The best Abinayam.
Hearing Bala speak.. in english brought tears to my eyes... despite not being schooled to speak the foreigner's language people like her were masters of their art yet managed to learn enough to communicate with the people who must necessarily certify the great aspects of our culture and tradition before we indians realize the greatness of our own heritage...what a sad commentary...
Pranaams to the divine celestial dancer! She was unique and only one. Nobody could replace her place.
Outstanding ........thank you MOPA for this wonderful film 🙏🏻.........this is came out really well
A truly phenomenal program!!! Thank you for this wonderful documentary of this amazing lady, the tradition and her remarkable family and influences
Thx to krishna fr his view on devaradiyaargal...I am one among the family
Such outstanding work guys! Great service to humanity by building this treasure!
So great work! I was trying to realise the essence of Bala's art and you made it possible. True great job you are doing! Do not stop it, please.
And many thanks that you made it in English!
What TM Krishna said was 100% correct
Thank you so much 🙏
Radhekrishna....beautiful and soo much of devotion towards ART
BEAUTIFUL, INSPIRING
It's beautiful ❤❤❤
Thank you so much for making this .....I am so much feeling greatful to c
outstanding work MOPA!
That was great
Wowwww. Made so beautifully. ❤️❤️❤️
T m krishna did say the right ones.
The opening viruttam "Shringaram" ... could any of you please share the link to the complete audio track (Much appreciated) !!
Thank you for this film!
I watched both parts of the documentary and I must commend everything that has been covered about Bala. Her life of art was itself a lovely composition, if I am permitted to say from the level of a mere awe-struck spectator...
The only jarring component was the theoretical talk by TM Krishna towards the end of Part-1. What has he got to to with Bala, I wondered (or is it some editing error?)...perhaps he must watch this documentary end to end to see how each thing he states is disproved even in the life of Bala herself! We always have lived in times when greatness was recognised and promoted by people of similar calibre (many were "men of privilege" in his language) and Bala too deservingly got all the appreciation and support. The self-deprecating talk of TM Krishna is jarring because with his few minutes of falsehood-based noise, he simply wipes away all these equally great people as if they don't matter!
I must be candid - I just wish that the sanctity of the documentary had not been sullied by the final bit of Part-1!
Thanks for your comment... i felt exactly likewise. :-) his talk makes one want to laugh out loud. What does he go on and on about...? every single time that he gets so voluble about the19- 20th century history of the matrilineal repositories of high art he comes across as stupid...empty headed... making up terms like "monoframe..." "aesthetic in the singular" mumbo jumbo... whatever does all that mean...laugh out loud that all...
If he has this much feeling for the historical wrongdoings against the people he pretends to be bleeding for he should stop singing and performing the way he does - because nobody else is grieving and self-flagellating like him and still making a living off it!!! This is beyond hypocrisy. As for his music... i feel it gets clouded by his pomposity... and frequent/excessive pseudo-self deprecation... as if he stands apart from all those who appropriated the devadasi's and isai vellalar's heritage - guess he is referring to the brahmin-musicians... and is desperate to tell the world that he is not like them...tho he may be one of them... what does one call such people. Having said all that... the main point (his music) can be ignored...
He thinks he makes sense...he does not realize that he sounds vacuous... And given his privileged background and the ease with which he has been able to make it to center-stage he gets away with literary errors when he sings kannada kritis... one of which put me off his music...some people just wont learn...
Truth always offends, please take a deep delve into the history of appropriation, reconstituting carnatic music and bharathanatyam into the present form, then you will realize what TMK sir is talking about
AN USELESS FELLOW TM KRISHNA.
@@samuelashwin8491 sameul ashwin rice bag creep . stop ur paid mumbo jumbo. How much did u get to write this garbage?
ur comments echo what i feel. I wondered too about this weirdo with his ears sticking out talking nonsense..
👏👏👏👏