The International Odishi Dance Festival got off to a colourful start here on Monday showcasing varied aspects of Odishi repertoire through legendary, established and senior dancers of repute who enthralled the audience by their splendid performances.
The evening session was started by Meenakshi Behera of Bhubaneswar. Despite being in her sixties, her lucid body movement in abhinaya “Dinabandhu ehi Ali agree chhamu re…” was excellent and marked a befitting beginning of the evening. This was followed by Vinod Kevin Bachhan of New Delhi. His performance was “Biseswara darshan ko chala man kashi…” where he proved his body potential. Madhusmita Mohanty of Bhubaneswar then came to the stage to perform “Sunya Swarupa”. Though her presentation was a mark of dynamism, but poor light management marred the charm.
Next item was a duet by Santosh Ram and Samir Kumar Panigrahi from Bhubaneswar who performed Vairabi Pallavi. Prachi Hota, a Bhubaneswar based dancer, came with an abhinaya “Shyama Ku juhara, Tara prema Ku juhara….”. City based dancer Sasmita Mohanty and Virag Reka Turi from Hungary presented “Saabhinaya” and a “Sthayee” respectively. In a duet presentation, K Dhanusha and Ipsita Sahoo of Cuttack proved their excellence. Dipsi Pattanayak, a disciple of Guru Pitambar Biswal, performed an abhinaya “Sate ki bhangi kala…” based on raag Desh and taal Jati. The following item was by Bandits Ghosal of Nrutyasala. With her meditative body movements, she presented “Abhimanini shree radha…..”. The concluding item of the evening was a group presentation by the students of Odishi Vision Movement, a Kolkata-based institution. It performed a nrutyabhinaya “Abartan Bibartan” where the dancers- a male and six female- explored the intricate rhythmic patterns of Odishi.
The afternoon session was started by the students of Indira Kala Sanity Vishwavidyalaya from Khairagarh University. Next artistes were Sanghamitra Parida and Molina Singh from Bhubaneswar, Ellora Mohanty from USA, Aruni Kumar Patnaik and Anubrata Atulita Patnaik from Bhiubaneswar, Ranjabali Dey and Poushali Mukharjee from Kolkata.
The festival was inaugurated by Culture and Tourism Minister AshokChandra Panda. On this occasion, two CDs by the GKCM Odishi Research Centre were released. The five- day long festival is being organized by GKCM Odissi Research Centre under the aegis of State Tourism and Culture department.