Air India: What is your background and how were you inspired to learn Odissi?
Amanda: I always say that Odissi found me rather than me finding Odissi,
but perhaps this is because I am a strong believer in fate and I
surrender everything into the hands of the Divine planner. I was
first exposed to Indian philosophy and culture as a child at the Neem
Karoli Baba Ashram in Taos, New Mexico. After completing a degree in
theater from Northwestern University, I began learning Odissi with
Guru Jyoti Rout in San Francisco and found that it was the perfect
blend of performing art and spirituality. After seven years under her
guidance, I was fortunate enough to be able to come to Orissa in
December, 2006. I have been staying here ever since and training
under the guidance of Smt. Sujata Mohapatra at Srjan, Bhubaneswar.
Air India: What has been your experience in India? What is your opinion of India?
Amanda: I had initially intended to stay in India for three months, which
became six, which became a year, which will soon be five years! When I
was in California, I used to spend most of my day in my car, driving
from rehearsals to teaching to dance classes. In America everyone is
in his or her own car and I often had the feeling that we weren't all
sharing one world but that each person was in their own climate
controlled bubble with their own personalized soundtrack. I sold that
car so I could come here and now I enjoy riding my bicycle through the
temples of old Bhubaneswar, wending my way past green fields in the
monsoon, huge looming clouds, grandmothers in sarees, kids and cows.
We are not so ruled by the clock here, by our appointment books or by
hard and fast and preconceived plans. Here I can live simply and let
each day flow in a natural way. I wake up before the sun and I know
that I am not alone. In the households around me people are awakening
and doing puja as I go for yoga on my roof.
Above all, my teacher is here, and being with her is the biggest
blessing in my life. I feel positive because I know that we are both
working together with our minds bent towards the divine. When I face
challenges, I always remember the great difficulties faced by my guru
and my guru's guru. When they have gone through so much hardship to
promote Odissi and to perfect the dance form, how can I complain? How
small my challenges become!
In India I have learned many things. I have learned to adjust to many
different circumstances. I have learned to have faith and patience.
I have learned that whatever demons or angels we have inside we carry
with us wherever we go. Most importantly I have learned that love is
universal. Love for one’s own family or one’s own land is natural and
sentimental. But when unconditional love begins to grow for those
people and places to whom one owes no obligation it is liberating and
healing.
I want India to learn from the mistakes and successes of my country
and other nations as it develops on its own unique path. I hope that
the values of peace, honesty, civic responsibility, and respect for
the earth and for other people find an important place in the India of
the future. I want young people to learn to appreciate their
traditional arts and culture as well as to cultivate critical
thinking, broad-mindedness and the understanding that humanity is one.
India is the seat of many spiritual riches and the birthplace of many
great human beings. I hope that the wealth of indigenous cultures and
the values of simple living and high thinking continue to be cherished
as India moves forward.
Air India: Please say something about your inspiration, love and dedication to
the Odissi dance form.
Amanda: The practice of Indian classical art can bring about deep spiritual
growth and transformation on the part of the practitioner. This
happens on many levels-through the guidance of the dance guru, through
offering seva to the divine in the form of dance, through communing
with mythological characters and through teaching and performing as
forms of service to humanity. Anything that one does in the spirit of
service and surrender becomes an act of worship.
I feel that it is important for us performing artists to serve the
community in some way. In the current artistic culture I have observed
that the thinking can become overly self-centered. I find time and
again that my most rewarding experiences are those in which I am
giving something. Trying to maintain an attitude of seva helps me to
keep the purity in my practice.
When I think of what master Odissi dancers such as Guru Kelucharan
Mohapatra and Smt. Sanjukta Panigrahi achieved, I feel that there is
endless depth and incredible power in this art. They were in total
communion while dancing. To experience that type of communion would
be nirvana for me. I want to come as close as I can to touching the
essence of this art form. I would like to lose myself completely in
it, even for a moment.
Amanda: I always say that Odissi found me rather than me finding Odissi,
but perhaps this is because I am a strong believer in fate and I
surrender everything into the hands of the Divine planner. I was
first exposed to Indian philosophy and culture as a child at the Neem
Karoli Baba Ashram in Taos, New Mexico. After completing a degree in
theater from Northwestern University, I began learning Odissi with
Guru Jyoti Rout in San Francisco and found that it was the perfect
blend of performing art and spirituality. After seven years under her
guidance, I was fortunate enough to be able to come to Orissa in
December, 2006. I have been staying here ever since and training
under the guidance of Smt. Sujata Mohapatra at Srjan, Bhubaneswar.
Air India: What has been your experience in India? What is your opinion of India?
Amanda: I had initially intended to stay in India for three months, which
became six, which became a year, which will soon be five years! When I
was in California, I used to spend most of my day in my car, driving
from rehearsals to teaching to dance classes. In America everyone is
in his or her own car and I often had the feeling that we weren't all
sharing one world but that each person was in their own climate
controlled bubble with their own personalized soundtrack. I sold that
car so I could come here and now I enjoy riding my bicycle through the
temples of old Bhubaneswar, wending my way past green fields in the
monsoon, huge looming clouds, grandmothers in sarees, kids and cows.
We are not so ruled by the clock here, by our appointment books or by
hard and fast and preconceived plans. Here I can live simply and let
each day flow in a natural way. I wake up before the sun and I know
that I am not alone. In the households around me people are awakening
and doing puja as I go for yoga on my roof.
Above all, my teacher is here, and being with her is the biggest
blessing in my life. I feel positive because I know that we are both
working together with our minds bent towards the divine. When I face
challenges, I always remember the great difficulties faced by my guru
and my guru's guru. When they have gone through so much hardship to
promote Odissi and to perfect the dance form, how can I complain? How
small my challenges become!
In India I have learned many things. I have learned to adjust to many
different circumstances. I have learned to have faith and patience.
I have learned that whatever demons or angels we have inside we carry
with us wherever we go. Most importantly I have learned that love is
universal. Love for one’s own family or one’s own land is natural and
sentimental. But when unconditional love begins to grow for those
people and places to whom one owes no obligation it is liberating and
healing.
I want India to learn from the mistakes and successes of my country
and other nations as it develops on its own unique path. I hope that
the values of peace, honesty, civic responsibility, and respect for
the earth and for other people find an important place in the India of
the future. I want young people to learn to appreciate their
traditional arts and culture as well as to cultivate critical
thinking, broad-mindedness and the understanding that humanity is one.
India is the seat of many spiritual riches and the birthplace of many
great human beings. I hope that the wealth of indigenous cultures and
the values of simple living and high thinking continue to be cherished
as India moves forward.
Air India: Please say something about your inspiration, love and dedication to
the Odissi dance form.
Amanda: The practice of Indian classical art can bring about deep spiritual
growth and transformation on the part of the practitioner. This
happens on many levels-through the guidance of the dance guru, through
offering seva to the divine in the form of dance, through communing
with mythological characters and through teaching and performing as
forms of service to humanity. Anything that one does in the spirit of
service and surrender becomes an act of worship.
I feel that it is important for us performing artists to serve the
community in some way. In the current artistic culture I have observed
that the thinking can become overly self-centered. I find time and
again that my most rewarding experiences are those in which I am
giving something. Trying to maintain an attitude of seva helps me to
keep the purity in my practice.
When I think of what master Odissi dancers such as Guru Kelucharan
Mohapatra and Smt. Sanjukta Panigrahi achieved, I feel that there is
endless depth and incredible power in this art. They were in total
communion while dancing. To experience that type of communion would
be nirvana for me. I want to come as close as I can to touching the
essence of this art form. I would like to lose myself completely in
it, even for a moment.
2 comments:
I want to learn Kathak Dance, this is a Indian Classical Dance Style, where Can I learn this online.
Kathak Dance Classes Online
Amanda is a pioneer in Odissi under Great Guru Sujata
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