Arts & Entertainment

Cross-Cultural Ambassador

Former Detroiter dons a sari to promote Indian dance.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

S baron Lowen never belonged to
a synagogue while growing up in
Detroit, but she has made syna-
gogue activity very much a part of her life
since establishing a home in Delhi, India.
Lowen did not anticipate that religious
commitment when she first traveled to
India in 1973, but she also did not antici-
pate settling into that distant land after
accepting a Fulbright Scholarship to study
native Indian dance.
Now a performer, teacher and writer,
Lowen visited the United States this sum-
mer to see family and friends, attend her
high school reunion and work in quiet on
a book about the martial arts and dance
in India.
Staying in the Southfield apartment of
her mother, Ethel Lowen, the University
of Michigan graduate talked about her
career while surrounded by furnishings
and art from the country adopted as her
second home.
"I always enjoyed being in India, and
I focused on my work as soon as I got
there says Lowen, 57, a specialist in
Odissi, a dance with movements to recall
the design of ancient Hindu temples. "I
extended my studies from one year to a
second year and then decided to take a
position so I could continue.
"I came back to the United States for a
few years, but after I had done perform-
ing and teaching here, I felt I could go
back for more study. My forte was the
most challenging part of the dance, which
is combining dramatic expression with

movement, and I realized that I needed to
return to India to grow."
In addition to the Odissi style of dance,
Lowen also performs and choreographs
the Chhau style, which employs martial
arts movements, and the Manipuri style,
noted for its graceful, fluid movements.
Lowen, whose interest in performing
arts developed while attending cultural
events in Detroit as a student at Cass
Technical High School, made her final
decision to remain in India when her
daughter was 7. Married in Ann Arbor
to a theater professor who joined her
in India for a time, Lowen wanted their
youngster's education to be stable as
Lowen pursued her professional goals.
"I also felt that if I was in America, my
interest in Indian dance would be tangen-
tial and I wouldn't be in the mainstream
of the art:' explains Lowen, now single.
"I wanted to be part of moving the tradi-
tion forward. I love coming to the U.S. to
perform and do residencies, but there are
more possibilities there."
Lowen, who has traveled the world
to introduce the choreography that has
become her specialty, also has worked
in Indian film and TV and has received
awards for her contributions to Indian
arts. She is the founder of Manasa
(Heart/Mind) — Center for Art Without
Frontiers to promote interaction among
various artistic disciplines.
"There are many institutions for teach-
ing dance, but I wanted to connect them
to each other and different arts:' says
Lowen, whose writing projects include
the book The Performing Arts of India.
"Connection makes everything more

Going
D
Bollywood

accessible.
first Jewish wedding
"I spend a lot of time
there in 30 years. In
formally and informally
addition, there was
as a consultant for vari-
a Sikh ceremony to
ous artists, and I'm on
honor Tara's husband's
the Fulbright board and
heritage.
selection committees to
The dancer believes
help cultural and intel-
her connection to
lectual exchanges!'
Judaism grew in India
Lowen, whose dress
because of the broad-
gives her the appearance
based spiritual envi-
associated with tradi-
ronment that included
tional Indian women,
her small Sephardic
likes that Delhi is very
congregation. She has
cosmopolitan and offers
never experienced
Sharon Lowen:
performing arts from
anti-Semitism.
Finding Judaism in India.
many cultures. She
Lowen, who main-
recalls the enjoyment
tains a professional
she experienced while teaching folk danc- Web site (www.sharonlowen.com ), does
ing at the Jewish Parents Institute when
miss the nearness of family and friends
she was growing up in Detroit.
although her mom visits for the winter
"I live in the center of Delhi near the
months. Her sister, Marilyn Lowen, is a
colonial center:' says Lowen, who is able
teacher and poet in New York. Her broth-
to get by speaking English although she
er, Robert, is a surgeon in California.
has learned Hindi. "I live in a penthouse
Last summer, while presenting pro-
with a terrace big enough for 200 people,
grams in Poland and Lithuania as part of
and I'm a five-minute walk from eight
an initiative sponsored by the Indian gov-
theaters.
ernment, Lowen performed in a Yiddish
"Consumer technology is catching up
theater in Warsaw and was very moved
quickly in India, so I have modern appli-
visiting the shtetls where her forebears
ances. I used to have to boil my drink-
lived.
ing water, but I now have an ultraviolet
"One thing that's nice about maintain-
filter. Shopping for food takes a lot of
ing my maiden name is that people can
time because we have to go separately to
recognize it when I perform:' Lowen says.
greengrocers, dry goods stores and butch- "People have started to Google their class-
ers."
mates, and I've had wonderful connec-
Lowen, who-is preparing a television
tions with people from my past doing that
production, recently took on the role of
— even from grade school." E
mother of the bride for her daughter, Tara,
who had a bat mitzvah in India and the

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

An ex-Oak Parker,
director sets his sights on
filming in India.

46 July 26 2007

army Baron's grandmother inadvertently
helped launch his screenwriting-direct-
ing career.
Baron became fascinated with Rose Baron's life
in Russia before the revolution and made her the
subject of his first documentary, Baba, a project
at the University of Michigan.
The film enthusiast, who grew up in Oak Park
and went on to develop many fictional screen-
plays, now lives in Los Angeles and has a new
movie idea that lures him into the culture of yet
another land. He has worked on the script for
Basmati Blues, a romantic comedy that takes

place in India and ultimately explores issues of
corporate greed.
Baron, also director of Basmati Blues, is in
the fundraising stage of making the film. He has
visited India a few times to scout production sites
and remains positive about soon beginning the
day-to-day tasks of turning his dialogue into a
feature-length motion picture.
An important part of his job is transferring
his attention from Hollywood to Bollywood, the
Mumbai (formerly Bombay)-based film center of
India, where an increasing number of English-lan-
guage films are being produced.
"We have about 70 percent of the money we
need and hope to have all our funds to begin
shooting in December:' says Baron, 44, who devel-

