Hindu Dance in Iowa

Those who had her as a teacher will not be surprised that this frightening personage is none other than Miss Julia Bennett. Maybe in their minds, she always looked like this: frightening and formidable!

In this photo, she is in full costume as Raksha, the evil sorcerer in the Dieman-Bennett Dance Studio production of the Hindu Swan Lake.

Maybe you didn't know there was such a thing as a Hindu Swan Lake. But there is!  Or was: choreographed by American ethnic dancer and choreographer La Meri, it was danced many times by Dieman-Bennett dancers here in Cedar Rapids--and at such important dance venues as Jacob's Pillow and the Edinburgh Festival.

Swan Lake is the story of a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. It's a very well-known ballet, with music by Tchaikovsky, a quartet of cygnets, and an evil twin to the princess, who does 28 (32? or more?) fouettés en tournant. 

The Hindu version that La Meri created uses the same Tchaikovsky music, but Hindu choreography. I've seen excerpts from a PBS documentary. It is a remarkable work, blending the familiar music we all know with the gestural, beautiful moves and gorgeous costumes of Hindu dance.

La Meri gave Miss Dieman and Miss Bennett the rights to perform her choreography--this must have thrilled them, as both loved Hindu dance. Miss Dieman had learned it from La Meri herself when she studied and danced with the famous choreographer in New York City (she was a Hindu cygnet). But it was a lot of work.  Miss Bennett writes in her notebook that it took two years to prepare the dancers to perform it.

Here is Miss Dieman with sari and drums in a picture from the same era, maybe rehearsing the dancers. 

La Meri came back to perform the role of the princess and Miss Bennett was the sorcerer at the Cedar Rapids debut on June 11, 1964 at Sinclair Auditorium on the Coe College campus.  

"Madame Le Meri complimented me and said I was the strongest Raksha she had ever danced with," says Miss Bennett in her notebooks.

Miss Dieman and Miss Bennett continued to teach Hindu dance classes along with classical ballet. It surprised their dance colleagues from different parts of the world that excellent instruction in Hindu dance could be found in Cedar Rapids, Iowa of all places. But they took it all in stride.  For them, Cedar Rapids was the perfect location for the flowering of the arts of East and West.