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Azurie

Azurie in Jhoomar (1959)

You might think that in the earlier years there were only male dancers around. That is not so. The participation of women in the performing arts, dance in particular, is not a new phenomenon. Long before Rafi Anwar and Ghanshyam, there was Azurie. (Panna and Amy Minwalla entered the field many years later).

Anna Marie Gueizelor, better known as Madam Azurie, was one of Pakistan’s classical dance pioneers. She was born in Bangalore in 1907, the daughter of a German doctor and an Indian mother. When her parents separated, Anna remained with her father, who did not approve of Eastern classical dancing, but admired the ballet and love music.

Anna was encouraged to study ballet with a group of Russian emigrants, and to practice the piano. As a young girl, she became aware of Eastern dancing during a rare visit to the cinema, but her father did not allow her to practice classical dance. When Anna reached her teens, the family moved to Bombay. Her father became a member of the Three Arts Circle organized by Begum Atiya Rahman from her palatial home, Aiwan-e-Riffat. Atiya Begum was the answer to Anna’s prayers. She arranged for Anna to study the arts of the subcontinent in her home. After her father’s death, Anna stayed with Atiya Begum and later became known as Azurie.

Azurie studied different schools of dance from renowned teachers and explored the rich field of Eastern music. She joined the Bombay film industry and was featured in numerous films. When her career was well established, she married a cultured Muslim gentleman who shared her interests.

After independence, Azurie settled in Pakistan with her husband and then opened the first Academy of Classical Dance in Pakistan. She appeared in a few Pakistani films but soon abandoned them. She toured a number of foreign countries, taking a small troupe with her. In Islamabad, Azurie was a member of the board of the National Council of the Arts. In Karachi, she was founder member of the Pak-American Cultural Centre, where she taught classical dance for a number of years.

Azurie’s dedication to the discipline of dance was so intense that she fought every opponent — club going executives, municipal officials, provincial governmental authorities — like a scalded cat. They felt cowered and left her alone largely because she spoke to them in her rat-a-tat, Anglo-Indian English which they could not understand but which they took to be a command of some sort. She ran her dance school with impunity. Her students were well-heeled ladies, mostly.

Azurie left for her eternal abode on August 1998.

Some of her famous films as a dancer include Yaad (1942), Tasveer (1943), Rattan (1944), and ShahJehan (1946)

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