The second evening of the Konark Dance Festival here on Saturday witnessed a huge crowd to the amphitheatre, apparently to watch the performance of former Indian cricket team skipper Sourav Ganguly’s better-half and Odishi dancer Dona Ganguly from Kolkata.
“I was a fan of Sourav Ganguly and I always loved watching him in action in the ground. I was quite curious to see his wife in action on stage. Thus, I came here from Bhubaneswar to watch Dona Ganguly,” shared Manorama Nayak, who came with her relatives to attend the festival.
“I am aware of the reason behind the people’s craze for me, but I am here today more as the disciple of Odishi legend Kelucharan Mohapatra. My performance here was an ode to the land of Odishi and a humble offering to my guru, with whom I had spent 25 years. That is why I have named my production as ‘Journey through Odissi’,” stated Dona Ganguly, who was invited to the festival for the second time in recent years.
Accompanied by the best of musicians from Odisha who included Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s son and Odishi dance and percussion exponent Guru Ratikant Mohapatra on mardal, Dona along with her 13 young and well-trained dancers of her Diksha Manjari troupe from Kolkata staged her production “Journey through Odishi” as a collage of four major components of the Odishi repertoire, Mangalacharan (invocation), Pallavi (pure dance), Avinaya (expressional dance) and Moksha (the final dance piece of ecstasy).
All the components had been choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Though the choreographies were old and were being seen often, a novelty in the presentation through a concept befitting to Konark and Guru Kelucharan made it refreshing and meaningful.
Earlier, Bengaluru-based popular dancing couple Nirupama and Rajendra presented their Kathak concert to mark the beginning of the evening. Along with their six young and energetic disciples, their Abhivnav Dance Company staged three numbers, laya-laasya depicting the loud and sublime elements of rhythm followed byRasaleela, the joyful dancing of the Gopis with Krishna in the mythical Vrindavan, and Chathuranga, the four aspects of dance and music like sahitya, sargam, bol and tarana.
Colourful costumes, soulful music and a judicious use of the sprawling two-tier stage-space made their concert lively. The intelligent couple was successful in invoking and involving the audience who joined the dancers in their clapping and stepping.
Telangana state Deputy Chief Minister K Srihari was the chief guest of the evening who along with Odisha Skill Development Authority head Subrat Bagchi, former Chief Secretary of Delhi PK Tripathy and former Odisha Chief Secretary Subas Pani lighted the ceremonial lamp.