Hand gestures, the mudras inspired by Odisha’s sculptures, replace props in Odishi guru Durga Charan Ranbir’s Bhubaneswar-based group Nrutyayan’s choreographies. Unlike other Odishi dancers who use props to show formations these days, Nrutyayan dancers use only ‘mudras’.
The 14 dancers from the group performed the traditional pieces from the ‘gharana’ of late Guru Debaprasad Das, one of the foremost gurus of Odishi, at the Konark Dance Festival recently. Ranbir is currently training around 300 students from India and abroad in the Guru Debaprasad Das style of Odishi at Nrutyayan. At the performance, the dancers presented ‘Soma Mangalam’ depicting the disastrous love of the moon God; the ‘Sthayee Nrutya’, embodying the nuances and grammar of Odishi, performed by the male dancers; dance drama ‘Jagannatha Gopinath’, that establishes Lord Jagannath as the ‘Mahabhava’ manifestation of Lord Krishna.
The dancers brought out a parallel between the activities of Lord Krishna in Dwaparayuga and the rituals of Lord Jagannath. In ‘Jagannatha Gopinath’, the choreography was punctuated with sculpturesque formations of Sri Krishna, a chariot, the river Yamuna and Vasuki, the 10-headed snake that protected baby Krishna while he was being carried to Gokul by Vasudev. “It is only Odishi that celebrates purity of the rich classical dance traditions,” says Ranbir, who choreographed these dances over a period of two months.
Ranbir has been actively involved in creating new training techniques for Odishi, and has extended and propagated the vocabulary of the dance form developed by his guru for five decades. According to Ranbir, three components are distinct to this ‘gharana’. “Tribhangi and Chauka are similar to all Odishi gharanas. What sets my tradition apart is the Sabda Swara Pata, an important feature of my guru’s style. He believed in retaining Odishi dance in its purest form,” says Ranbir, adding that in the 1960s, his guru collected components of Sabda Swara Pata Nrutya that was being performed in a crude form at the Brajeswari Temple of Kumbhari village in Sambalpur district and implanted them in Odishi grammar. In Sabda Swara Pata, the dancer performs to slokas. There is no music involved. “My guru had also developed a unique style of abhinaya and naturalistic approach to the dance form. Besides, in our style there is not much torso movement,” says the choreographer, who believes that abhinaya is an integral part of Odishi dance. Ranbir, a Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee, adds: “It is only through abhinaya that a dancer’s skill is reflected.”
As a teenager, Ranbir had attained his initial training in Odishi from Guru Das at the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in Bhubaneswar. “Though I was interested in Odishi, learning the steps initially was extremely difficult for me. Once, I made up my mind to give up the dance and return to my village when my guru stopped me. He told me that the beauty of Odishi will take over my body pain if I practice regularly. From then, my training with guruji continued for nearly 20 years and I follow his advice even today,” says Ranbir, adding that his guru created abhinaya like Ashtasambhu and Shivashtaka, meant for male dancers. “Following his footsteps, I have created abhinaya for male dancers and female dancers.”