BHUBANESWAR:

When wellknown Odissi danseuse and former principal of the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya Minati Mishra pleaded with the hosts and the audience of the recently concluded Guru Pankaj Utsav here to watch nine-year-old Nritta Ganeshi Manoharan, everyone was convinced that the child must be a prodigy.

Hailed

And true to their expectations, she performed the complicated pure dance number `Vadya pallabi' with ease and elan. She was also the youngest solo performer at the international Odissi dance festival held earlier in New Delhi by Bhubaneswarbased dance institution Bansi Bilas where eminent dance critic of The Hindu Lela Venkatraman hailed her performance as the observer.

Nritta is the daughter of Srilankan Bharatnatyam dancer Shangita Namasivayam who is based in the Malayasian capital of Kuala Lumpur. "We never named her this way deliberately. Nor we wished her to be a dancer in future. It was my friend and veteran dancer Chandralekha, who had suggested the name ," revealed the dancermother, who was a student of Rukmini Devi's Kalakshetra.

"She used to accompany me to most of the dance recitals in Kuala Lumpur and she wanted to dance. But it was Odissi instead of Bharatanatyam as all the dancers felt that her body and look were made for it. And I agreed," Shangita recollected.

At four-and-half years, Nritta was enrolled as the youngest student at wellknown Odissi dancer and choreographer Geetha Shankaran Lam's Temple of Fine Arts in Kuala Lumpur. Nurtured with care, Geetha groomed her as a solo performer and featured her in several prestigious cultural events in Malayasia apart from her research series on dance - "Darpana". Being trained by the Bhubaneswarbased Akademi awardee versatile guru Durga Charan Ranbir at present, the child has emerged as a confident solo performer on stage.

What does Nritta love to enact on stage? "The naughty Krishna", pat came the reply from the kid whose most precious personal possession has been statue of Krishna that she was presented recently.

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