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Fitting tribute to dance guru

BHUBANESWAR: Rich tributes were paid to the chief architect of Odissi dance, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, on his 5th death anniversary in the State capital on Tuesday.

At the Rabindra Mandap here, city-based Art Vision cultural organisation, founded by the Italian Odissi dancer Padma Shri Ileana Citaristi, who has made Orissa her home for the past 28 years for her love for Odissi dance, hosted ‘Remembering Guruji’ – a festival commemorating the occasion.

“A meeting with him changed the course of my life. I left my motherland and parents behind to be with him and with Odissi. This is my humble tribute to the guru who not only changed my life but of many established dancers,” revealed the national film award winner choreographer who has also been Kelucharan’s disciple and biographer.

Ileana, along with six senior dancers who were disciples of the master, collectively inaugurated the festival and each of them performed as homage to their guru.

Among them were Switzerland-based eminent Odissi dancer and Oriya actor Minati Mishra, dancer Meera Das and Anil Lenka from Cuttack, Kolkata-based Odissi dancer and actress Nandini Ghosal, Itishree Dwibedy from Bhubaneswar and Pranati Mohanty from Angul.

Late Kelucharan’s wife Laxmipriya Mohapatra, the first Odissi dancer of the world, was invited to the event where the Odissi dancers specially honoured her.

While each of the artistes presented one of the choreographic compositions of Kelucharan, singer Sangeeta Gosain, an assistant chief executive of the Guru Kelucaran Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre and young dancer Saswat Joshi went on narrating different incidents from the life of the master.

The dance performance was preceded by screening of the much-acclaimed film Bhabantaran that well-known filmmaker Kumar Sahani has made on the life of the Guru.

Art Vision launched this annual memorial festival on the 4th death anniversary of Kelucharan Mohapatra on April 7 last year.

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