The fourth annual Adi Guru Pankaj Charan Das Award Festival, hosted here at the Rabindra Mandap by the city-based Guru Pankaj Udra Sanskruti Academy, concluded with presentation of the lifetime Achievement Awards on Rabinarayan Panda for Odishi dance and K Ramarao Patra for Odishi music.

Both the exponents worked with Odishi Guru Das for more than three decades. While Puri-based Rabinarayan was a disciple of the Guru who also hailed from Puri, Ramarao was a student of music department of the State owned Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in Bhubaneswar where Das was the head of the Odishi dance department. The Guru, who was a famed choreographer and dance director, used to take Ramarao in his team for decades.

Central Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee mardal exponent Guru Banamali Moharana, who was instrumental in fetching classical status for the indigenous percussion instrument of Odishi mardal and was a close associate of Das, presented the awards. Guru Moharana and the two awardees spoke eloquently on the pioneer of Odishi dance who is often referred to as the ‘Adiguru’ and ‘Guru of Gurus.

Chief Executive of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odishi Research Centre (ORC), Sangita Gosain hailed the efforts of young Odishi dancer and Guru Das’s grand-daughter Pallavi Das for hosting an annual festival in memory of the great master. She was a special guest for the award presentation ceremony.

The two-day festival featured solo recitals by Eiko Shinihara from Japan, Soumya Bose from Kolkata, Bhargavi from Bengaluru, Manisha Manaswini from Bhubaneswar and Anisha Singh from Cuttack while duet concerts were presented by Harekrushna Dhal-Purnata Mohanty, Sanjeev Jena-Rosy Swain and Niladri Mohanty-Sasmita Mohanty. The group presentations were made by Gunjan Dance Academy of well-known Odishi dancer-choreographer Meera Das from Cuttack, Malashree Odishi ensemble of Aprita Venkatesh from Kolkata, Sivakshya troupe of Sanjukta Dutta-Pradhan from Bhubaneswar and the city based ORC.

The festival has a special talent search section for the budding dancers – Guru Pankaj Charan Das Prativa Pratiyogita – in which 16 soloists performed and their performances were evaluated by a jury to confer the Guru Pankaj Prativa Puraskar on the winners.

“Most of the performers of the festival presented choreographies of Guru Pankaj Charan Das. Since the objective of the festival is to highlight the legacy of the legendary maestro who brought Odishi dance from the temple to the stage, the dancers prefer to present the Guru’s compositions as their offering to Guru Pankaj Charan Das,” explained festival director Pallavi Das.