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Friday, December 13, 1985 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

BY VICTORIA DIAZ

Special to The Jewish News

xpressive use of the
hands and eyes greatly
impressed the audi-
ence. Her dancing dis-
played perfection of
footwork, beautiful ex-
pression and finesse in performing
Indian classical darice.

E

Jai Rajasthan, Udaipur

She is no mere narrator, not just
a sensitive actress and graceful
dancer. She has mastered the tech-
nique and its key, rhythm.

Hindustan Times, New Deli

She danced with exquisite grace.

The Hindustan Standard, Calcutta

The famous dancer . . . left the
audience emotionally moved in an
atmosphere of ecstasy.

Samachar Jagat, Jaipur

A make-up artist helps prepare Lowen for her November performance at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Praise from the top Indian
newspapers, for an accomplished
dancer who was born in India, grew
up in India, and who studied with
the finest dancers in that country
since early childhood — right?
Well, not exactly.
The applause is directed, in-
stead, toward a woman who had
never even seen India until, in her
early 20s, she traveled there to
study classical Indian dance on a
Fulbright scholarship.
An American Jewish girl, she
was born and grew up in Detroit,
graduated from Detroit Cass Techni-
cal High School, and eventually
went on to attend the University of
Michigan.
Her name is Sharon Lowen, and
when the exotic-looking dancer ex-
plains the unlikely turn of events
her life has taken — well, it doesn't
really seem that unlikely after all.
As I was growing up, I was ex-
posed to a great amount of the per-
forming arts — dance, theater, pup-
petry — that was non-Western," she
explained, while in town last month
to perform at the Detroit Institute of
Arts as part of the Festival of India.
"Detroit had a lot of things coming
through then — at Masonic Temple,
down at Wayne State University. In
addition, I was taking lessons in bal-
let and modern dance at the time. I
used to be in the All-City Modern
Dance Company. I was Tiger Lily in
the DIA's Peter Pan, which they did
every Christmas, and I was also in
the DIA's summer program."
Being immersed in modern