Description
A humanoid figure performs an Odissi dance sequence in three-dimensional space. The figure appears to be a Southeast Asian male and is dressed in black, with bare hands and feet. The figure possesses human facial features that do not change. Images providing interpretation of the dance's narrative, symbolic elements (such as spring flowers, a bull, a young woman, the deity Jagannath) appear intermittently in the background to the left and right of the dancing figure. The digitized model moves with the gestures and postures of Sarkar’s Odissi body yet adding a distinct style of its own; he seems to transition from one move to the other with a slightly different timing and intension as if adding a layer of his own on Sarkar’s movements as well as Sarkar’s animation experiments with her movement. Layered over the focal video in the top right corner is a smaller video of Kaustavi Sarkar performing the Odissi dance sequence from which the motion-capture movement data was generated.
Analysis
Although all four variations feature a representative figure, we label this variation simply "Avatar" to emphasize its more "realistic" human appearance (rather than its apparent material of composition). The movement sequence for this video is the same as with the skeletal figure; however, in this variation the hand gestures (Mudras) are coded in, adding a further layer of communicative finesse. The avatar takes on a more specifically embodied form; it appears to be gendered male, with a Southeast Asian ethnicity, and wears a tight black shirt and pants with buttons and pink/red cuffs at the end of the sleeves. The avatar has a face, but it is completely expressionless (and perhaps somewhat unsettling when its face stares directly out at the audience). It is especially interesting to note that this is a male avatar selected by a female performer to represent her own dance; though this particular avatar was chosen for means of availability and ease in composing, this choice also speaks to the dancer's ability to choose from a range of options of how to present her movements to the viewer, beyond what costuming or makeup choices might allow.
Additionally, this video features still images in the background (and some integrated with the dancer's dance) that provide visual interpretations of the dance's narrative and symbols: a painted hand; a lantern; a sketch of a Mudra; a peacock, another mudra, a woman in a garden; spring flowers; a statue of a dancer; an illustration of a woman in a garden; cattle; a temple sculpture; a stylized face; spring flowers; and a temple sculpture. These images offer a visual descriptive transcript of the movements' meaning similar to the verbal descriptions interpreting the captioned video (see section on Odissi Gesture and Textuality for further discussion). Due to their prominent placement, the still images potentially compete with the moving avatar for the audience's attention. What is perhaps most interesting is the image of the lantern near the beginning— the only image that is integrated into the motion of the dance itself, as the avatar sketches out its progression across the screen with its hands. This moment indicates the possibility for the still images to complement rather than compete with the movements in providing visual interpretations of the poses and gestures— a possible tool for educating unfamiliar audiences more effectively on the gestures' narrative meanings.
