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Found: Vyjayanthimala's Other Bharatanatyam Dance in Chittor Rani Padmini...
In my first post on V.S. Muthuswami Pillai, the nattuvanar who among many things choreographed most of Vyjayanthimala's best Bharatanatyam in Indian cinema, I had discussed a beautiful Bharatanatyam...
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Uday Shankar, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn in Utah!
While browsing through the Utah Digital Newspapers website (mostly public-domain material, woo!), I was surprised to learn that Uday Shankar, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn all performed multiple times...
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Meeting and Interviewing Kamala! And a Rare Video Find at the NYPL!
Get out of the way people, dance nerds coming through!Last week I had the pleasure of taking a dream trip to New York City and visiting the hallowed walls of the place that has for years beckoned me...
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My Article "Screendance in Indian Cinema" and Thoughts on Film Dance
Last week saw the end of the fourth Naada Bindu Festival—a three-day residential arts retreat at the Chinmaya Naada Bindu gurukul for Indian performing arts in Pune. The festival features a number of...
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Bharatanatyam in Sri Lankan Sinhalese Films and in Sri Lanka
While on a zealous search to see what kinds of dance could be found in the cinema of Sri Lanka, India's island neighbor to the south, I was completely perplexed when I stumbled onto this...
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Manipuri Dance in Indian Cinema and the Beautiful Dances in Sanabi (1995,...
Reading about Manipuri Dance in books about Indian dance, especially those written pre-1990s, has always been quite entertaining to me. There is a distinct exoticised "othering" seen in statements like...
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Classical Dances in Recent Indian Films - Including Sattriya and Kootiyattam!
While I've been mostly looking back in history as I've blogged about Indian film dances for the past few years, a number of films have released in recent years with songs or scenes featuring classical...
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Remembering the Film Bharatanatyam of the Late Adyar K. Lakshman
When I learned the sad news yesterday that the Bharatanatyam Guru Adyar K. Lakshman has passed away, my mind immediately went to his excellent choreography in Indian cinema. Since it still seems that...
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Rabindra Nritya/Tagore Dances in Bengali Films
In my efforts over the past year to look beyond my focus on South Indian cinema dance to see what other regional cinemas of India have to offer, my research on Odissi, Manipuri, and Sattriya film...
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The "Indian" Dances in Kali Yug (1963, Italy/France/Germany)
Back in 2011 when I researched for my post series on Indian dances in Western films about India, I found some images from the 1963 Italian film Kali Yug that seemed to depict India and feature an...
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Mystery Indian Dancers in Seven Wonders of the World (1956, US)
When fellow Indian dance sleuth Ragothaman translated sections of Shankar Venkatraman's Tamil book Thiraiulagil Isai Kalaignargal (Musicians in Cinema), I was surprised to read a number of little-known...
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Film Classical Dances of Manju Warrier (She's Back!)
Manju Warrier (official website)Manju Warrier is back and dancing in films again with a fantastic Kuchipudi-based dance in the Malayalam film Ennum Eppozhum released in March! I am beyond delighted....
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Video of Jack Cole Performing "Hindu Swing" in Hollywood Palace (1965)
In my 2011 post on the "Father of Modern Jazz Dance" Jack Cole, I had included a production still of Cole dancing on the American TV show Hollywood Palace (1965). The image captured an important...
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Found: Rangam (Malayalam, 1985) and Shobana/Mohanlal's Bharatanatyam and...
Rangam, one of the holdouts from my "holy grail" wish list, has finally been uploaded to YouTube! Thanks to cram for informing me of this lucky discovery! As I had hoped, classical dance (Kathakali and...
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Muthukumara Pillai On Screen in Kannika (1947), and Other Nattuvanars in...
Thanks to twoYouTubers who have uploaded songs from the 1947 Tamil film Kannika in the past few months, Bharatanatyam dance history aficionados can now witness on screen the nattuvanar Kattumannar Koil...
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Swapna Sundari Dancing in Kissaa Kursee Kaa (Hindi, 1977)
Today I was alerted to Anuj Kumar's days-old The Hindu article about the 1977 Hindi film Kissaa Kursee Kaawhich reveals that the director used classical dance forms "performed by Swapna Sundari to...
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New 1950s Footage at Net-Film: Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, E.V. Saroja,...
Today I thought, "I wonder if Net-Film has digitized any new videos featuring South Asian dance since I last visited," and they most certainly HAVE—including nattuvangam/training footage of Vazhuvoor...
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Recent Film Classical Dance Finds
And...I'm back! :) Some personal matters have kept me away for a long time, but a moment of inspiration and deciding that my posts don't all have to be lengthy mini-dissertations led to a new post...
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Blog Hiatus, a Rare Simkie Photo, and Distinguishing Kuchipudi
Hello dear readers and friends! Well...it has been some time since I have posted or updated this blog. My how time flies! Long overdue is a post letting folks know that this blog is on an indefinite...
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Birju Maharaj Dancing Kathak in Khayal Gatha (1988, Hindi)...Yes, I'm Back,...
I'm back, my excitement has spontaneously returned, and the blog has had a facelift that's still under some construction. More on all that soon, but for now, on to the content!Every once in a while I...
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Film Kathak Choreographies of Birju Maharaj
My last post about the discovery of Birju Maharaj dancing Kathak on screen in the art film Khayal Gatha inspired me to go watch all of his film choreographies that I've heard bits and pieces about over...
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New Kamala Dance Finds in the Tamil Films Mahatma Udhangar (1947) and...
I'm back to immersing myself in searching and research, and what do I find this month but two film dances of Kamala that I've never seen before in the 1947 Tamil film Mahatma Udhangar and the 1958...
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Guru Gopinath Dancing in Mahatma Udhangar (1947, Tamil) and BFI Footage, Plus...
How excited I am to recently find two more visual records of Guru Gopinath dancing in the mid-1940s, one in the commercial Tamil film Mahatma Udhangar and one archival find at the British Film...
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Rare Madame Menaka Find: The Menaka Archive
A few days ago, an article on Madame Menaka by the great Indian dance historian Sunil Kothari was published in The Asian Age, and I was heartened to see that the title of his article is about his...
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The Golden Age of Scholarship on Dance in South Indian Cinema is Here
Back in August of last year, as I emerged from a period of gripping ennui that had largely led to my blog hiatus, I eagerly went on an internet search jaunt to see what new finds might be out there,...
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