Festival of opportunities
SHYAMAHARI CHAKRA
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Not all were budding dancers at the annual event organised by Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi.
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Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty
Graceful art Mitali Giri.
One of the major responsibilities of the Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi, the apex institution of the state for promotion of performing arts, is to spot talents and promote them. Accordingly, it has been hosting an annual festival for young Odissi dance
rs in various parts of the state in association with the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Kolkata.
The festival coincided with the birthday of the late legendary Odissi dancer Sanjukta Panigrahi. Although the festival was announced to be a homage to the legend who was synonymous with Odissi, the poor quality of performances that onewitnessed during the two-day event was rather an insult to the prima donna who stood for perfection.
There was no scope to discover new talents, nor artistes f thanks to the arbitrary decision of the Akademi officials.
Jyotsna Sahoo, who was featured in this festival in 2003, was repeated for reasons best known to the hosts. With a poor body balance and total lack of clarity in emoting, she had a miserable performance both in pure and expressional dance numbers.
numbers. But one wondered why a widely performed artiste like her was included in this festival meant for budding dancers.
The concluding evening was for the three budding dancers - Ralli Nanda of Dhenkanal, Mitali Priya Giri of Balasore and Ankita Rath of Angul - who were adjudged first, second and third in the first state-level Odissi dance competition for budding artistes that was launched by the Akademi this year.
Despite being gifted with good look and impressive physique, Ralli is yet to achieve the desired angasuddhi (perfection of the body) while her expressions have been quite immature. Poor training seems to be the factor behind her fai
lure to grow.
The find of the festival was Mitali, a self-taught dancer with immense promises.
It was amazing to learn that this girl from rural Baliapal region, who has just completed her high school, has been learning the dance form by watching Odissi performances on television that her engineer-father has provided her. Gifted with a natural talent, spontaneity has been the hallmark of this aspiring dancer. Fortunately for her, she hasjoined the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, the premiere college of performing arts at Bhubaneswar, as a student of Odissi department.
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