Odissi cornucopia...from Orissa!
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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The 3rd International Odissi Festival held recently at Bhubaneswar threw up some excellent performances by dancers from India and abroad.
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FEAST OF ODISSI: Mayadhar Raut.
It was a five-day Odissi juggernaut moving between three spaces of Bhubaneswar's Rabindra Bhavan, Odissi Sangeet Mahavidyalaya's mini auditorium and the new Vidyalaya Amphitheatre. Inspired by the indefatigable Pratap Das's IPAP based in Washington, U.S., the third International Odissi Festival achieved the stupendous task of putting practitioners of Odissi in India and in different corners of the U.S., UK, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Spain, Japan and France in touch with one another.
Curtain raising by Shankha Dhwani and Ramahari Das's (Chief Executive ORC) melodic invocation was followed by gurus like Mayadhar Raut, Gangadhar Pradhan and Durga Charan Ranbir performing with that conviction which comes from a lifetime spent in Odissi, communicating evocatively, transcending aspects like costume, jewellery and pretty dancing.
Durgacharan Ranbir
Individual sparks of brilliance in senior dancers came in Minati Mishra's focused intensity and stillness, Sonal Mansingh's variously paced and starkly eloquent Jara, Ileana Citaristi's presentation of Ekalavya, Ranjana Gauhar's interpretative involvement, and Ramli Ibrahim's subtly intense "Sanginere Chaha".
Of the dancers based abroad, Nandita Behera's student Saranya Mukhopadhyay's Ardhanariswar, Jyoti Rout's disciple Amanda Grady's physical agility and bhava in Sankatvimochan Hanuman and the angasuddha of the impressive Patnaik sisters Shalini and Shivani impressed. Among senior dancers Mitali Dev's evocative Durga Stuti stood out. Talented youngsters were Rojalin Mohapatra trained by Gangadhar, Bixchitrananda Swain and Aruna Mohanty, Sanjukta Dutta rendering the Devagandhari Pallavi, Arushi Mudgal presenting Bageshri Pallavi and Leesa Mohanty. If Reena Jena in the Behag Pallavi epitomised the old Sanjukta dance mould, Bijayalakshmi Das in Shankarabhanam Pallavi (helped by Acharya in the workshop sessions) projected the real technique of late Pankajcharan Das, whose Odissi bani, thanks to scattered performances is the most diluted.
Moved to tears
Rekha Tandon's generous Konarak trip though delightful, meant missing some of the finest segments devoted to duets and more importantly Purush presentations. Of what one saw, Rahul Acharya's equipoise in Sthai apart, Lucky Mahanty's "Manasu mana" composed by Kumkum mohanty evoked Gotipua echoes. But it was the one-legged Nityananda Das's evocative nritta and abhinaya that moved one to tears. The performance of the session, indeed of the festival, throwing overboard conventional gender trappings, lay in the strapping six-footer now based in California Vishnu Tatwa Das (originally a student of the ORC under Kelucharan Mohapatra), presenting the erotic lyric "Lila He Nidhi". No awkward coyness here while creating a vision of a transformed, nude Radha, who after intimate moments pleads that Krishna return her clothes.
The festival triggered certain relevant issues on what constitutes good group work and the aesthetics of presentation. Ramli Ibrahim's Sutra and Sharmila Biswas' Odissi Vision, both earlier maligned for their progressive approach, stole the thunder. Gangadhar Mohapatra's Odissi Academy and the Odissi Sangeet Mahavidyalaya presentations showed excellent group discipline and proficient dancers. Meera Das's Nupur shows promise with efficient dancing and some well thought out themes. Poorly balanced music and dancer amnesia even in much performed items like the Shankarabharanam Pallavi showed the Odissi Research Centre in poor light.
Gangadhar Pradhan.
The massive canvas had its uses. But can we opt for excellence and forget about kindness to seniority that has lost all presentational appeal? Can we ruthlessly weed out bad dancing, trite talking by comperes and design tight and slick programmes without tired minds and eyes after ten hours or more of watching a dance form? Response to Lecture demonstrations on Yoga and dance by Meera Das, on avoiding injuries and on dance therapy presided by the Doctor and Bijoyini Satpathy need more stress.
Be informed
Young dancers should be trained on how to prepare media kits and on the need to inform themselves with more reading.
How many cared to derive the most from the concurrent exhibition on Odissi designed by Ramahari Jena and Soubhagya Pathy and excellently got up journals designed by Dinanath Pathi, whose book `Rethinking Odissi' was released on the occasion?
How does one educate audiences who enthusiastically egg performers on to unaesthetic exhibitionism? Bichitrananda Swain, an intelligent choreographer/teacher, charged by bursts of applause went into self- indulgent, lokadharmi histrionics in "Ahe Neela Saila". Agitated protests were heard against Odissi based on Tagore's `Bengali' Samanyakhoti , or unconventional music, "damaging the `tradition". Sadly political expediency by isolating segments, breeds divisiveness making parochialism ride high.
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