BHUBANESWAR: It was a befitting tribute to the man who is synonymous with Odissi dance.
On Saturday, six senior disciples of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra put up a dance recital in the city on his eighth death anniversary, aptly named ‘Remembering Guruji’.
City-based Italian dancer Ileana Citaristi, the biographer of the late legend, was behind the event and her cultural institution ‘Art Vision’ hosted it.
The highlight of the event was presentation of several old choreographic compositions of the guru. The most important of them was the dance drama - Kishore Chandrananda Champu - composed by the Guru in 1983.
The inaugural recital, ‘Kshyamano Kampaharu’ - a ‘Mangala charan’ was presented by Ileana Citaristi herself. It was followed by ‘Gati Bheda Pallavi’ and ‘Dine No Dakibo Radhika Bolire’ by senior artiste Sikhata Das.
Curtains came down on the event with artistes of Art Vision coming together with the students of Srjan Nrutalaya in presenting ‘Kishore Chandrananda Champu’ as a tribute to the Guru.
Kavisurya Baladeva Ratha’s Kishore Chandrananda Champu is a series of poems in which each line starts with a subsequent letter of the Sanskrit alphabet. Guruji composed most of the songs for this dance drama staged at National Centre for Performing Arts in May 1983.
With music by Pandit Bhubaneswar Mishra, the dance drama dealt with the eternal lovers Radha and Krishna and Lalitha who brings the two together after their separation.
While Pranati Mohanty played Lord Krishna, Nandini Gosal donned Radha and Lalitha and Bishaka were played by Ileana Citaristi and Itasri Panda respectively.
The accompanying musicians were Sachidananda Das on mardala, Abhiram Das on flute and Swapneswara Chakravarty on sitar. Sangita Gosai and Swardeswar Baitharu were vocalists.
A documentary on the life and times of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra was screened on the occasion.