How Beena Keum from Seoul imparts ‘Odissi soul’ to South Koreans
Beena Keum fell in love with Odissi in 2002 after watching an Indian movie. Today, at 42, she is a professional Odissi dancer, teaches, and also has a YouTube channel that celebrates the dance form.
South Korea is synonymous with K-pop and taekwondo. The country also boasts a culture rich in tradition, similar to India. Traditional Korean culture includes art forms like Buchaechum, a beautiful dance form with intricately painted hand fans, and Gugak, which encompasses various forms of local music.
Today, with the cultural explorations of this South Korean dancer, the country’s women folk are revelling in the mudras of Odissi.
Forty-two-year-old Beena Keum might have spent a large chunk of her life in Seoul, yet she found her true calling over 4,000 kilometres away, in Odisha with its traditional dance form - Odissi.
Speaking to HerStory, Beena shares her love for Odissi, and why she teaches the dance form to women back home.
Beena Keum
The odyssey
When she was in her 20s, Beena Keum was a student of philosophy and comparative religious studies at Sogang University in Seoul, and pursuing dance as a career was not even a passing thought. Then, she fell in love with Odissi, and is now thrilled to be teaching Koreans the intrinsic mudras of the dance form that originated from the temple dances of devadasis.
In 2002, she watched the movie Kama Sutra, and chanced upon a short 10-second excerpt of Odissi. Beena was so awestruck, she kept rewinding the Odissi scenes, and after many rewinds, she started learning and practising the movements alone in her room.
In an instant, Beena knew she was going to pursue the dance form professionally, and began searching for a guru, and a place to stay.
Just before coming to India, Beena was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, studying Buddhism for her master’s degree. She approached the Indian embassy in Colombo, requesting them to give her the names of a few Odissi gurus in India. She then travelled to Bhubaneswar and met her first guru, Gangadhar Pradhan. Soon, she met her other gurus and began learning from them.
“Most people are aware of the importance of the balance between spirituality and material richness in this capitalistic world, and Odissi conveys that. Odissi is so powerful,” Beena says.
Her first guru, the late Gangadhar Pradhan, who founded the Konark Natya Mandap in Konark Puri, taught her and helped her with her manch pravesh - her first public performance after she had acquired adequate training.
Beena was incidentally Pradhan’s last disciple. She also learnt from other gurus like Bichitranand Swain, Manoranjan Pradhan, Lingaraj Swain and Yudhisthir Nayak.
Since her first performance in Bhubaneswar, Beena has performed in many cities across India, including Delhi, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. In Korea, she has performed in cities like Seoul, Busan, Cheongju, and Chuncheon. She is yet to perform in other countries.
Ever since her tryst with Odissi began, Beena has been living in both Seoul and Bhubaneshwar. For 13 years, she would stay in Bhubaneswar for nine months, and in Seoul for three months a year. Today, she travels back and forth, and lives in both countries equally.
Beena has also written a book in Korean, which has not been translated into English yet. Titled Dal, Bi, Jam (달, 비, 잠) - which translates to Moon, Rain, Sleep - the book touches upon being lost and finding her way, her experiences with learning Odissi, and her life in Odisha.
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Obstacles and support
With the thrill and satisfaction of pursuing Odissi came the unavoidable challenges of stable finances. How did she overcome the financial hurdles of living in two countries, a calling for Odissi and a life that required sustenance?
Beena explains,
“Since the beginning, my finances were my biggest problem. However, I am moving forward. Recently, I started my own YouTube channel - Art Beena - to explain Odissi and Indian culture. Through the channel, I want to reach out to more people, and have a more stable creative working platform. If it becomes popular, it will be financially helpful too.”
This enriching journey into another culture and its dance form has made Beena introspective. Today, she admits that observing herself has been the most important, interesting and inspirational learning.
Everything and everyone around her, and the people she sees through various media give her “a golden inspiration, and energy.” She is also thankful to her friends and family who have been her rock, and supported her all the way.
The road ahead
Beena Keum whose name translates to 'Shining Gold,' lives up to that definition.
She has been a devoted Odissi dancer for over a decade, and does not plan on quitting any time soon. Although she has no concrete plans for the future, she wishes to keep practising Odissi and Taekwondo till her last breath.
“Indian art and culture including Odissi are not popular in Korea even today. However, once they experience Odissi, they have no choice but to cherish the aura of the dance form deep in their hearts. I do my best to make more people get a chance to ‘meet’ and explore Odissi, and understand it in every way possible.”
She has taught 30 Korean students in regular classes – all adults. She has also conducted one-day workshops in Seoul which have seen around 300 people at once.
To other women pursuing dance, Beena simply says, “I don’t have any advice. I believe that everyone will find their own way through their own experiences.”
(Edited by Suruchi Kapur Gomes)
