With the white peace pagoda forming its apt backdrop, the 13th edition of the Dhauli-Kalinga dance festival will be staged at the foothills of the historic Dhauli near here from February 6 to 8.
The three-day festival is being hosted collectively by the city-based dance institutions, Odisha Dance Academy (ODA) and Art Vision, besides the State Tourism Department.
A brain-child of the visionary arts promoter and ODA founder Odissi dance Guru late Gangadhar Pradhan, the Dhauli dance festival was his second venture since 2003 after his annual Konark dance and music festival launched in 1984 to promote heritage and cultural tourism through such festivals. After his untimely death in 2010, the festival has attained new heights under the leadership of Guru Pradhan’s distinguished disciple and ODA’s chief executive Aruna Mohanty, who has just been the winner of the coveted Padma Shri Award.
Similarly, the annual Kalinga Mahotsav has been the brain-child of well-known Italian Odishi dancer Ileana Citaristi who made Odisha her home decades ago. It was India’s exclusive martial dance festival that aimed at highlighting Dhauli as the symbol of victory of peace over war. Both the festivals, being hosted at the same heritage site, were merged with an initiative by the State Tourism Department and renamed as Dhauli-Kalinga Mahotsav.
The prestigious Buddha Samman, instituted by host ODA to honour a distinguished cultural personality, goes this year to noted theatre personality, artist and writer Asim Basu. The award carries a cash award of Rs 50, 000 along with a citation and an angabastra. Guru Gangadhar Pradhan Smruti Samman, instituted this year by the hosts in memory of the ODA founder, will be conferred on five noted personalities - India’s best known dance-scholars Sunil Kothari and leela Venkatraman, US-based scientist and Odishan art promoter Purna Patnaik, entrepreneur and art promoter Sarat Kumar Sahoo and Sitakanta Dash, another US-based arts promoter from Odisha.
The inaugural evening will kick off with a special presentation Aikatana: A Confluence of Odissi Dance by eight Odishi troupes of Odisha celebrating the diversity and beauty of Odishi dance. It will be followed by Kalarippayattu martial arts presentation by Mumbai-based Belraj Soni and goup. Similarly, the second evening will showcase Tala Vadya-Vichitra, an ensemble of percussion instruments led by Odisha’s well-known mardal player Guru Dhaneswar Swain, followed by Bharatanatyam presentation by Mumbai-based Vaibhav Arekar and his troupe and martial arts by Binash Kumar Mishra from Odisha’s Malkangiri region.
The concluding evening will feature Manipuri dance by Bimbavati Devi and her troupe from Kolkata followed by lavani dance of Maharashtra by Pramila Kautikrao Suryawanshi and group and contemporary martial art by Bengaluru-based Janardhan Raj Urs and group.