Surendra Nath Jena

Surendra Nath Jena (10 October 1924 – 8 October 2007) was an Odissi, such as temple sculpture, ancient dance, Sanskrit and vernacular literature, yoga, traditional painting, manuscripts, and philosophy. The entire music and dance choreography of these compositions were by Jena himself.

Early life

Childhood

Surendra Nath Jena lived in the small village of Uchapur in Bhadrak district of Odisha. He belonged to a very poor family of farmers. His father Kalandi Charan Jena died at early age and his mother Gukhuni Devi Jena brought him up by selling vegetables and fish in the local market. His mother belonged to an artist family of local singers and Jatra actors. Due to very less interest in studying in school and being naughty, at the age of seven his mother put him in Asura Matha, a nearby institution where children lived and stayed to learn dance and drama.

Jatra Journey

His Jatra teacher was Anand Nayak. Soon he started giving Jatra performances of stories in the epics of Mahabharat, Puran and Ramayan. For almost thirty years, he travelled all across Odisha in bullock carts or sometimes on foot, along with Jatra Troup and gave night long performances, rehearsing and subsisting on very little money and food.

A stranger, an actor in the Ras Party of Gopinathpur, offered him a job in the repertory company. A blessing indeed, he was an actor and a teacher earning twenty rupees, which was considered a good salary in rural India in those days. He became the guru of the Jaidurga Dramatic troupe of Chudwara and the Director of Jatra troupe, Sharda Kala Kunja of Nagaspur.

Personal life

In his late thirties, he married Smt. Kumudini Jena.

* Nirmal Ch Jena, He established the Odissi Dance Company (ODC) in Sydney, Australia. He presented a series of performances and dance education programs in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra.
* Pratibha Jena Singh, She is one of Odissi's leading exponents. she has created performances, demonstrations and imparted dance education in this unique Odissi style all over the world. She imparts training in the nuances of this legendary Odissi style at the Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi and at dance schools in Russia and Ukraine.
Other two daughters Rekha Yadav in Delhi and Rama Jena Pradhan teach Music and Dance in Bhubneshwar.

Career

Beginning of Dance

Guru Surendra Nath Jena spent six months in Kolkata, to learn the art of Kathakali from Bal Krishna Menon. This Kerala dance form was highly sophisticated as compared to Jatra, which is why he decided to learn it. But he could not complete his learning due to lack of money. In the 1950s, Odissi developed a dance form that was rediscovered by Oriya artists, scholars, Gotipua Gurus and Maharis named Jayantika. He spent the first five years studying the style recreated from the testimony of old Devadasis/Mahari dance and gotipuas, or young boys dressed up as women who had replaced the Maharis. With the completion of his study, he received the Nrutya Bhushan degree in Odissi Dance in the year 1965–66.

The Konarak Inspiration

Soon Jena left Odisha and moved to Delhi, where he joined Nritya Niketan in 1966 as an assistant, and later joined Triveni Kala Sangam, an art institution in New Delhi as an independent teacher of Odissi Dance in the year 1967. He spent all his life here, teaching many foreign and Indian students and created his unique style of Odissi until his old age 2004.
Radha and Krishna were his Ishta Devata. His style is a way of worshiping the super soul through dance.

Unique style

In 1966 he came to Delhi and began to develop his own style of Odissi dance. This style is unique, enriched by his deeply researched appreciation of ancient literature and Odisha temple sculpture. His choreography is an inspired essay at bringing alive those poses captured in stone, reminiscent of temple carvings. He gives as much importance to feelings(''Bhav''), elements in dance, as he does to basic poses(''Bhangi''), his opinion that one is incomplete without the other. He upholds the ancient belief that ''Bhakti'' finds expression in dance and music, that itself is form of ''Sadhana''.

His style is unique and dynamic, spiritual devotional, inspired by the temple sculpture of Odisha. It has evolved from the Similarities between images seen in Odisha's rural culture in everyday life and Odisha's various arts like ''Jatra, Pattachitra scrolls, Talapatra paintings, Odisha's text'', the Exquisite temple of Konark, Lingraj, Jagannath Puri, Chausat Yogini etc. His style brings temple sculpture to life.

Awards and Achievementss

*In the 1970s he went to U.S.A three times to teach Odissi in workshops, on the private invitation and from the Naropa Institute of United States.
*He received Fellowship from Dept. of Culture, Govt. of India from 1981–82.
*He wrote the book 'Atman-Odissi Nritya Puran' in Oriya poetry about the history, technique, and aesthetics of Odissi from 1991–93.
*Video documentation of his dance composition was done by Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1994.
*The Roehampton University of London made a Documentary Film on Jena's style, titled "Performing Konark, Performing Hirapur" by Dr. Alessandra Lopez y Royo in the year 2005–06.
*He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award from President of India Abdul Kalam in the year 2007, for his contributions to Odissi.

References/Notes and references

Further reading

* ''ATMAN- Odissi Nritya Puran ''by Guru Surendra Nath Jena. Published by Pratibha Jena Singh, 2017. .
* ''Dance Matters'', Ch-17 '' Guru Surendra Nath Jena Subverting the Reconstituted Odissi Canon''. Written by Alessandra Lopez y Royo, 2010..

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jena, Surendra Nath
1924 births
2007 deaths
Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Indian dance teachers
People from Bhadrak district
Odissi exponents
Performers of Indian classical dance
Indian classical choreographers
Dance education in India
Teachers of Indian classical dance
Indian choreographers
20th-century Indian dancers
Dancers from Odisha
20th-century Indian educators
Educators from Odisha