Where are they now? The Odissi dancer from Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White’

Ok, this could be one of our new article series! As a Michael Jackson fan, we always look at every aspects of his artistic work, we scrutinise every single elements, details and of course people.

Some times, I look back at some pictures or short films and I am questioning myself: “who is this?” “what’s their names?” or “Where are they now?”

Well, let’s try to answer this starting with the Odissi dancer from ‘Black or White’ short film and directed by John Landis.

‘Black or White’ is full of colour, cultural references and diversity. The number of dancers doing different cultural and modern dances is an absolute joy for the eye but also for any professional dancers out there, a true inspiration.

Remember the Indian woman from Michael Jackson’s Black or White? Well her name is Yamuna Sangarasivam and she is a trained Odissi dancer, who was chosen to perform along with Michael Jackson on the LA expressway with running cars in the background. Remember now?

The music video was released in 1991, a time when Yamuna Sangarasivam was pursuing her Master’s degree at University of California in Los Angeles. Currently she is working with Nazareth College in New York as a Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Women and Gender Studies Undergraduate Program in Sociology & Anthropology as well as Director of the Women and Gender Studies Program in Women and Gender Studies.

Recalling her journey to the road of fame, she said that, after hearing about Michael Jackson’s call for ethnic and modern dancers, she had auditioned with 3,000 others. And when she got a call about being the ‘selected one’, she hung up the phone and began screaming with joy! As per her college’s website, it has been stated that the iconic music video was shot during an approximately 14-hour session that shut down a Los Angeles expressway to film them dancing with stunt drivers whizzing through the foreground and background.

You can even find her rehearsals with the King of Pop on Youtube:

Yamuna Sangarasivam has even presented an analysis of the video at musicology and performance studies conferences, and continues to connect its themes, such as diversity, cultural integrity, and transnational formations, into her work today.

Where is she now?

Having grown up in northern Sri Lanka, Yamuna Sangarasivam has studied western classical piano, Tamil carnatic voice, and Bharatanatyam. While her father hails from Singapore and her mother is from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Yamuna Sangarasivam had learnt three languages and had lived in Sri Lanka and North Borneo, before she migrated with her family to the United States when she was 9 years old.

You can find more information about Yamuna Sangarasivam on her college’s website HERE