Art Vision is organising a two-day dance festival in Delhi. Founder Ileana Citaristi speaks to GANITA about the intricacies of the productions and their concepts
It is not every day that an Italian falls in love with an Indian classical dance form so much that she settles down in the country to learn and master it. Now she has made Odisha her home and has dedicated her life to learning Odissi. In 2006, Ileana Citaristi became the first dancer of foreign origin to be conferred the Padma Shree for her contributions to the dance form. Now, she has come up with the two-day Odissi dance festival Tribhanga - Exploration in Odissi dance. This is scheduled to take place on July 13 and 14 in Kamani Auditorium. The performances will be a subtle blend of Chhau and Odissi.
“It is a journey of twenty years. We are presenting four pieces that the students have been preparing for long. I have chosen these four among the many because I feel these are most meaningful productions of my journey as a choreographer. It is a very important occasion where our work is going to be presented in the form of a festival in the national capital. In the past years, many students came and went but those who are with me now are presenting four of my works,” said Ileana. She founded Art Vision in 1996 along with a group of artists belonging to different disciplines. The festival will start with a performance called Saraha, inspired by the tale of Saraha, the founder of the Tantric discipline in the Tibetan region, with music by Anwar Khurshid and laxmikanta Palit.
This will be followed by kaala, a dance production on the concept of time, with text by Devdas Chhotrai and music by Annada Prasanna Pattanaik. On July 14, the festival will open withkaruna, a work inspired by Mother Teresa’s life put to music by laxmikanta Palit. The second presentation is Siddhartha based on the famous novel written by Hermann Hesse with music by Annada Prasanna Pattanaik. “Students have been rehearsing since December. Although the pieces are not new but they have been revised. For exampleSaraha was composed in 2006. Sidhartha was composed in 2014. These pieces have not been changed but revised. Some of the original members were there while some of them left. Hence we had to look for substitutes. They needed to be taught the moves,” said the dancer. She went on, “More than performances, these are four productions. It is like actually preparing four programmes. We are having it in two days that means two productions a day. So, it’s been quite a hard work for the performers.”
Ileana told us that nine artistes are going to perform at the festival. Almost the same group is going to perform in all the pieces. There will be change in costume in between.
Saswat Joshi, who has been projected as the main character in all the four productions, shared, “My guru prefers performing with me as her dance partner. The reason is that our chemistry and techniques match.” Ileana will also be performing inTribhanga although her part will be small. “I usually don’t perform in a group dance as I prefer to coordinate and keep an eye from the outside,” she concluded.