Ananda Shivaraman

Le dan­seur de katha­ka­li Anan­da Shi­va­ra­man
The Mon­treal Star, éd. Wee­kend Pic­ture Maga­zine, Vol. 3, No 46, Nov. 14, 1953. Le docu­ment fait par­tie de la volu­mi­neuse col­lec­tion de presse en pos­ses­sion de P. K. Devan, autour de la tour­née cana­dienne du dan­seur.
La col­lec­tion est repro­duite, cré­dits et droits, In TREMBLAY, Richard (2016), Cho­reo­gra­phy and Dis­course in Katha­ka­li (« Cho­ré­gra­phie et dis­cours en Katha­ka­li »), Thèse de doc­to­rat (Biblio­thèque de l’u­ni­ver­si­té Kera­la Kala­man­da­lam, Val­la­thol Nagar, Thris­sur 679 531, Inde), pp. 367 – 68.

Anan­da Shi­va­ra­man (1916 – 2001), l’un des pre­miers dan­seurs indiens de Katha­ka­li for­més pro­fes­sion­nel­le­ment au Kera­la Kala­man­da­lam, a été par­ti­cu­liè­re­ment pré­sent au Cana­da dans les années 1950 et 1970 (sans comp­ter l’Aus­tra­lie, les États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni), comme en témoignent la presse cana­dienne de l’é­poque et les études  avancées.

Extraits de presse

From India, a Temple Dance
A lea­ding dan­cer from the Mala­bar coast dis­trict of South India is guest star for the spe­cial pro­gram being pre­sen­ted by the Vol­koff Cana­dian Bal­let at Eaton Audi­to­rium on Wed­nes­day. Shi­va­ra­man is des­cri­bed as a lea­ding exponent of Indian clas­si­cal dan­cing. His debut in Lon­don, in 1949, is repor­ted to have been some­thing of a sen­sa­tion. He has appea­red with the Mel­bourne Natio­nal Bal­let in Aus­tra­lia and his present visit to this conti­nent, his first, is under the patro­nage of His Excel­len­cy, the High Com­mis­sio­ner for India in Canada.

(The Globe and Mail, March 28, 1953.)

Fine Katha­ka­li Demons­tra­tion by Notable Hin­du dan­cer
Shi­va­ram pre­sen­ted a group of tra­di­tio­nal Katha­ka­li dances and pro­ved beyond any doubt that none of the lau­da­to­ry press notices of Lon­don and Paris erred on the side of extra­va­gance. This beau­ti­ful­ly-made dan­cer has a fabu­lous tech­nique, the result of twelve years of concen­tra­ted stu­dy and prac­tice which began at the age of eight, and he is obvious­ly so stee­ped in the poe­try and lore of Katha­ka­li that the move­ments flow out of him effort­less­ly. His body is an ins­tru­ment of expres­sion, whe­ther in motion or repose. His facial expres­sions run the gamut from see­thing hatred to the serene pla­ci­di­ty of a sculp­tu­red god, while his ges­tures convey mea­ning even to those who know nothing of the com­plex lan­guage they speak. It is to be hoped that many oppor­tu­ni­ties can be arran­ged for the gene­ral public in Mon­treal to see the exqui­site art of this remar­kable Hin­du dan­cer before he leaves to teach and give per­for­mances at Ted Shawn’s in the Uni­ted States.
(Syd­ney Johnson)

(The Mon­treal Star, May 28, 1953.)