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DANCE: Indian dance course at Columbia

If you know of other schools doing this, please post in the comments section.

From: Sabrina Buckwalter <sb2997[at]columbia.edu>

To: sai_list@columbia.edu
Subject: NEW COURSE OFFERING: Indian dance Spring 2009
We would like to announce the following new course that will be offered within the Barnard dance department during the upcoming Spring semester
at Columbia University.

New course - Spring 2009

DANCE IN ASIA: INDIA-Perspectives & Bodies
DNCE X3567.001
Call number 04849

Professor Uttara Coorlawala
Tuesday & Thursday 10:35 am - 11:50 am

This 3 credit lecture course on Indian dance, its history and cultural significance will review the amazing variety of dances, historical literature and performance texts.  The course will consider the traditional and innovative genres that co-exist; representations of Indian-ness in India, and outside India; the transformation of global identity in Bollywood films and the American dance scene.

What can we learn from the aesthetics of the dances and the people who perpetuate its performance? What is useful for us here and now in the performer training practices, and in the theorizations of practice, the body and the performance of gender?  What do the various classical,post-traditional and vernacular dance forms signify within India, outside India and among globally located persons of origin from the
subcontinent?  How might this information be understood or re-interpreted in global situations of multiple simultaneous perspective?

More on the prof here.

POLITICS: Muslim conference prompts gay-evangelical love, peace, harmony

President-elect Barack Obama's selection of conservative fundamentalist minister Rick Warren, who supported California's Proposition 8 in last month's elections, to deliver the invocation at the presidential inauguration has caused many of Obama's progressive supporters to feel a sense of "betrayal," as Neil Buchanan has written at Dorf on Law. Singer, songwriter, and Prop 8 opponent Melissa Etheridge, who is openly lesbian and has been a longtime activist for gay rights and other progressive causes, had much the same initial reaction. While she had never previously heard of Warren, she wondered whether Warren was a "hate spouting, money grabbing, bad hair televangelist like all the others," and whether she should boycott the inauguration on account of his selection.

Given the controversy, Etheridge was "stunned" to learn that Warren would be giving the keynote address at the Muslim Public Affairs Council's annual convention in California -- where Etheridge herself was scheduled to appear with Junoon's Salman Ahmad to perform "Ring The Bells," a song they had co-written "call[ing] for peace and unity in our world." (Since December, apparently, is "Using Music to Change the World Month," the MPAC performance was intended to initiate a broader "Ring the Bells for Peace" Campaign, which you can read more about here.)

Etheridge says that she initially contemplated canceling her appearance at MPAC on account of Warren's appearance. However, as she recounts at the Huffington Post, Etheridge ultimately decided on a different approach to the situation:

FILM: MIAAC's week of Indian parallel cinema

Thirty-two Indian art house films were showcased in a glitzy five-day event organized by Mahindra Indo–American Arts Council Film Festival. These included independent and Indian diaspora films screened across 10 theaters in Manhattan. India’s "parallel cinema" (also known as "art films") which had remained Bollywood’s underfunded cousin for much too long, has come a long way since the 1970s.

"A Long Way From Bollywood," a 1,500-word story by Allen Salkin in NYT:

What was once a tiny festival started out of an attic office in Westchester County, N.Y., has grown into a five-day mini-extravaganza playing through this weekend on screens and in after-parties from the Upper East Side to TriBeCa and attended by stars fresh off Mumbai-to-Kennedy Airport flights and by Indian immigrants from throughout the Northeast. The festival is not a celebration of the sprawling spectacle films of Bollywood. Instead it focuses on what is known in India as Parallel Cinema, a more personal narrative type of film like Mira Nair’s art house hit “Monsoon Wedding.”

Such films often have a larger box office appeal outside India than inside because they appeal to audiences of Indian expatriates and immigrants. Many of the Indian actors in these films are immigrants themselves or are Indian actors more on the Steve Buscemi model, the types who might play villains in mainstream films but relish smaller independent works where they can do more nuanced work, and often get a lot more screen time.
<snip>
The festival was started by Aroon Shivdasani, an Indian immigrant, in the wake of 9/11. A few years ago she moved the Indo-American Arts Council, which sponsors Indian cultural events year round, out of her home to a cramped rear office on West 29th Street. She attracted Mahindra, an Indian automaker, as a sponsor, and this year she hired a festival director, L. Somi Roy, who has curated Indian film showcases for many New York museums.

THEATER: Bhagavad Gita on stage, in Brooklyn

Many of us might remember growing up watching "The Mahabharata" on TV, VHS or DVD. The television epic in Hindi  created a milestone in terms of mythological serials in the Indian subcontinent. Now, "The Mahabharata" is ready for the stage at The Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Academy is presenting the Bhagavad Gita in the form of a 70-minute chamber opera, "Arjuna's Dilemma," by Douglas C. Cuomo, The New York Times reports.

“As soon as I began thinking about the Bhagavad-Gita again, I was very excited,” he said recently. “There were great opportunities for emotional singing, a real spiritual element and a level of metaphor that was greatly appealing to me. I felt I could examine the philosophy in a musical way. Music gave me a way of naming the nameless.”

In the English version of this epic saga, Indian singer Amit Chatterjee is the voice for Krishna; he sings segments of the musical in raga style, in Sanskrit. His American counterpart, Tony Boutte, a Baroque and contemporary specialist, sings Arjuna, also in Sanskrit, accompanied by female chorus in English, The Times reports. 

Prior to Cuomo's version, which premieres in New York on Nov. 5, the Bhagavad Gita was staged in San Fransisco as an opera titled "Doctor Atomic" by Peter Sellars in 2005. Philip Glass's opera "Satyagraha" is another adaptation of the epic, which was first performed in Rotterdam in 1980 and last year in New York City. Peter Brook's "The Mahabharata," was a 1980s play and a film which was seen around the world.

"Arjuna's Dilemma" has already been released on CD. Here's what Washington Post's Anne Midgette had to say:

It's easy on the ear, and very beguiling..."Arjuna's Dilemma" has something a lot of new operas don't: appeal. Opera is an art form that was for many years the ne plus ultra of popular entertainment. That aspect of it is all too easy to lose sight of, as many current pieces show. Opera, to work, has to have a certain understanding of what drama is, and how it functions. But it also has to have an audience, and "Arjuna's Dilemma," for all its flaws, has a pretty good chance of attracting one.

Official info at BAM.org. Post your comments below.

FILM: Sikh Film Festival & Heritage Gala

From a press release from the Sikh Art & Film Foundation:

Celebrate the rich Heritage, Traditions and Culture of Sikhs and the Asian immigrant experience through a diverse mix of independent Documentaries, Short and Feature Films
at the 5th Annual Sikh Film Festival 2008 on Saturday, October 4, 2008, 10 am to 12 Midnight at the Asia Society on Park Avenue in New York City.

Headlining the phenomenal collection of 16 Films from across the globe is the Feature Presentation and New York Premiere of the critically acclaimed film - Ocean of Pearls (USA) directed by Dr. Sarab Singh Neelam.<snip>

The Documentary Session has 4 powerful films covering the wide spectrum of current social issues to historical art and traditions of Punjabis in South Asia. The PBS Independent Lens featured A Dream in Doubt (USA) directed by Tami Yeager profiles the violent aftermath of 9/11 where Sikhs were singled out because of their turbans and beards, while Baljit Sangra's Warrior Boyz (Canada) takes an in-depth look at the South Asian gangs in Metro Vancouver. Emmy Award Winner Sikhs in America (USA) directed by Niall McKay and Marissa Aroy shows how Sikhs maintain their cultural traditions while also participating in the American dream. Finally, Navdeep Singh Kandola's Pahelwani (India) shot in West (Pakistan) and East (India) Punjab traces the history and traditions of the dying art of Punjabi wrestling.

See the full press release and contact info below. Post your comments, please.

WRITERS: Hanif Kureishi's writing room - and yours

What makes the perfect writing environment?  In a special report, The Guardian surveyed the rooms of several authors past and present, including Rudyard Kipling (who used to pace on his Indian rugs), Charles Darwin and Martin Amis .

Author and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi is one of the featured writers. He describes his room as follows:

I've got thousands of CDs because I always listen to music when I'm writing. I've done it since I was a teenager, when I first started writing in my bedroom in Bromley. Silence makes me feel rather uncomfortable, nervous.

The flock wallpaper was in the house when I got here, I've kept it, and indeed fought to keep it, because it is like being in an Indian restaurant, and I always wanted to spend all of my life in an Indian restaurant.

What does the space you write in look like?  Post your comments below.

CONV: "Brick Lane" brings Bangladeshi slice of life to the scree

Tannishtha Chatterjee and Sarah Gavron are interviewed by SAJA's Aseem Chhabra after the screening.

Monica Ali's novel, "Brick Lane," the story of a Bangladeshi family in London's East End, has been made into a movie and it exposes audiences to an immigrant community rarely seen on screen.

The new experience isn't limited to the audience, though - neither director Sarah Gavron or lead actress Tannishtha Chatterjee are Bangladeshi. So it was a learning curve for them, too, they told the audience at a screening for the South Asian Journalists Association convention.

The screening on Thursday night at Columbia University marked the beginning of the 2008 SAJA Convention. The screening, courtesy of Sony Picture Classics, played to a nearly full house, and featured a special Q&A session hosted by Aseem Chhabra with Gavron and Chatterjee.

The movie is adapted from a book of the same name by Monica Ali. It weaves through the life of Nazneen, as she grows up, marries at 17, moves to London and raises a family.

 
This is British director Gavron’s first feature-length film, and she said she picked Brick Lane because of its wide appeal across cultures.

“At its heart, it’s a human story,” Gavron said.

ENTERTAINMENT: Indian firms face manpower shortage

Lisa Tsering of India West covered a California discussion that addressed a manpower shortage in India's entertainment industry. From her report:

The changes in the Indian entertainment industry have been “magnificent and staggering,” in the words of one of its top executives — but some real challenges remain if the country hopes to keep speeding along on its current upward trajectory.

Signs of success are everywhere — in TV, sports, animation and film — but the media industry there is facing inadequate infrastructure, legal challenges and a shortage of skilled media professionals.

The industry simply can’t find or keep enough good people, said Andrew Kaplan, president of international networks for Sony Pictures Entertainment, during a panel discussion presented by the entertainment wing of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Pacific Council on International Policy.

“For such a relatively young industry, the available pool of trained and experienced talent is limited. The current supply-demand equation makes attracting and retaining talent among our biggest challenges,” Kaplan said. Added Dr. Amit Mitra, FICCI’s secretary general, “We are getting good at technology, but our creative skills are lacking.”
<snip>
Kaplan and Mitra were joined on the morning entertainment panel by Sonia Nikore, former vice president for casting in NBC’s entertainment division; and Udaya Kumar, Adlabs’ business head for North America. Richard Celeste, former U.S. ambassador to India and the co-chair of this year’s conference, moderated the panel.

An influential report issued by Ernst & Young in April explains that television is the largest segment in the Indian entertainment market, earning $5.7 billion in revenues in 2007. There is increasing confluence between American and Indian TV companies: UTV has teamed with Disney; NBC Universal has picked up a 26 percent stake in NDTV, and Warner has tied up with Miditech to launch entertainment channels in India.

See  the rest of the piece, which includes some suggestions on how to address the problems. Post your comments below.

FILMS: Tarsem Singh's "The Fall"

Back in 2000, a movie called "The Cell" made a splash among horror fans. I knew nothing about it, except that the director was named Tarsem Singh (sometimes credited as just Tarsem). Turned out he was a well-known music video director (he made the 1991 MTV Video of the Year, "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M.").

He's back, with a major movie coming out this Friday. After seeing a trailer for "The Fall" on one of the networks last night, I asked SAJA Board member and movie writer Aseem Chhabra to write up a few words about it, confident that he'd know a lot about it. Chhabra didn't disappoint. Here's his take:

I saw Tarsem (Singh)'s The Fall today at a press screening.  And I found the film stunning.  It is such a sumptuous, visual spectacle -- bright vibrant colors, vast epic like settings -- nature has never looked so
beautiful.  The film is shot in 20 countries -- covering practically every continent.  But Tarsem leaves his best camera work to capture Northern India -- the Taj Mahal, Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur, and several sweeping shots of Jodhpur (the blue city).  The film is essentially a fantasy --a story narrated by a handsome injured stuntman (Lee Pace) to a very cute young girl (a heartwarming Catinca Untaru), with a broken arm.  Both are in a hospital in LA. 

At times the story appears to falter -- but that also has to do with the hallucinatory state the stuntman is in.   But overall this film is a visual delight.  Roger Ebert called the film "magnificent!"

Time Out New York gave "The Fall" a 5-star rating on a scale of 6 -- that is tremendous.

In 2007, Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times profiled Singh, writing in part:

Tarsem Singh has made a lucrative living for 17 years as a sought-after director of commercials, videos and the creepy 2000 horror hit, "The Cell." As he told me, more in awe than in boast, he once made more money in one day shooting a commercial than his father did in 30 years as an aircraft engineer in India. And what did Tarsem do with most of that dough? Breaking the cardinal mantra of Hollywood, he spent it making a movie called "The Fall."

UPDATE: Chhabra's May 2008 interview with Tarsem: "Hindi movies often don't capture the beauty of India."

What do YOU think? Post your comments below, please. Here's one of the trailers:

AWARDS: Guggenheims for Meena Alexander, Ashutosh Varshney, Sumit Guha, et al

The Guggenheim Foundation just announced its 2008 fellows and there are several desi names on the (ultra swank) list. The foundation handed out $8.2 million to a total of 190 scholars, artists, journalists and others. There were 2,600 applicants.

• Meena Alexander - poet - Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY) - "Quickly Changing River: Poem"
  
• Ashutosh Varshney - political scientist - Univ. of Michigan - "Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India" (full list of books)
• Sumit Guha - South Asian studies scholar - Rutgers University
• Chandrashekhar B. Khare - mathematician - UCLA
• Tony D'Souza - author of "The Konkans"

NDTV has coverage here.

Though not many Indian-Americans have been receiving this fellowship as compared to other ethnic groups in US, their numbers have steadily increased by every passing year.

Pulitzer Prize winner novelist Jhumpa Lahiri; mathematicians Manil Suri and Santosh Srinivas Vempala; curator Meenakshi Wadhwa and historian Sumathi Ramaswamy, are among the previous Indian-American recipients of this award.

Musician Pandit Pran Nath is said to be one of the earliest Indian-American recipient of Guggenheim fellowship, way back in 1974.