Selection of dancers and allotment of slots for the ongoing State Government-organised International Odishi Dance Festival at the Rabindra Bhawan here have triggered resentment among several Odishi dancers and connoisseurs.
The five-day festival has three sessions daily, morning, afternoon and evening. The evening sessions are considered prime-time for the performers obviously as these sessions get maximum audiences and media coverage while guests are invited for lamp-lighting ceremony.
While the festival has gained global stature owing to attendance of dancers from foreign shores, a number of such senior and talented dancers have been featured during the less-important morning and afternoon sessions while junior and mediocre dancers have got prime-time slots.
Well-known Japanese dancer Kazuko Yasunobu, disciple of legendary Kelucharan Mohapatra and founder-director of Studio Odissi in Japan, was put in an afternoon session. Sam Goraya from Australia, a very senior dancer in his mid-50s, has been offered a slot in the morning session that starts at 10 am that is meant for beginners and budding dancers. Similarly, Lawrence Sackris from Malayasia and Amina Boussemha and Yashaswini Raghuram from the USA, who are known as talents, have received the raw deal by being featured during morning sessions. “It depends on the dancers’ connection with the members of the selection committee. Many of the dancers who have got prime-time slots are disciples of or closer to the selection committee members. It is high time the Department of Culture conducted an inquiry into the nexus that has hampered the quality of the festival over the past 15 years,” pointed out several well-known Odishi exponents on condition of anonymity.
“We don’t wish to be named as our students and institutions would suffer from the vindictive nature of the powerful lobby,” they confessed.