BYE BYE INDIALUSIA

Documentary film by Roland Pellarin

Production: Stratis, 2003
Ethnova collection in collaboration with les Ateliers d’ethnomusicologie
DVD or video cassette PAL VHS 52'

This film portrays the worlds of two exceptional dancers, who, over the course of several years, have developed a common language based on the encounter between their respective traditions: flamenco for Ana La China and kathak dance for Ravi Shankar Mishra.  The show “De Bénarès à Jerez", directed by Astrid Stierlin, fascinated all those who were present.  This experience was quite different from other fusion projects in fashion at the time, due to the sincerity of how it was approached and the artistic commitment involved.

How did this project come about and how did it take shape?  Who are the two magnificent dancers, Ana la China and Ravi Shankar Mishra, and where do they come from?  These are the questions that Bye Bye Indialusia answers.  Thanks to enquiries undertaken in the music world and to footage from Benares and Jerez, where the two protagonists guided the director, the film unveils both the advantages and weaknesses of this type of cross-cultural encounter.