The Samskritiki, a cultural organisation, in collaboration with many Odishi dance institutes, will organise a 7-day Odishi dance festival, ‘Odishi International-2014’ here from Thursday.
A total of 250 Odishi dancers and 16 troupes from 14 countries would perform on the occasion. The main objective of the festival is to unite Odishi dancers and lovers and to create for a platform for them to discover cultural roots of the dance tradition, said organisers. Odishi dancers from Bangladesh, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malayasia, Muscat, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, USA, Ukraine and the Netherlands would participate besides from different parts of the country.
Odishi dancers belonging to all age groups from Minati Mishra (80) to Bangalore’s four-year-old Shrinika, who is also considered as the “Wonder kid of Odissi” will perform. Similarly, noted artist like Aruna Mohanty, Sujata Mohapatra, Meera Das and four Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Prativa Puraskar winners, leena Mohanty, Rahul Acharya, lingaraj Pradhan and Sonali Mohapatra would grace. Ten top Odishi talents of the world under the age of 30 years would be chosen under the programme ‘International Odissi Talent Search.
The festival would be inaugurated at 6 pm at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan. Popular Adruta Odissi Group comprising orphans will perform on the occasion. Rest of the programmes would be oraganised at the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya auditorium from 2pm to 9 pm everyday from December 19 to 24.
