BHUBANESWAR: Noted Odissi dancer and guru Kumkum Mohanty, widely recognised for her flawless ‘abhinaya’, enthralled art connoisseurs with a performance based on author Pratibha Ray’s ‘Yajnaseni’ in the city on Wednesday.
Hosting and performing at ‘An Evening of Abhinaya’ organised by her Geeta Govinda Dance & Music Institute, the dancer, in her late 70s, said ‘abhinaya’ is a quintessential part of Odissi. Many of her students also performed at the event. “It is the most important and difficult part of Odissi. I am hosting this ‘abhinaya sandhya’ because I want to show how my students are learning are performing abhinaya. And all of them performed on traditional Odissi songs which is what my gurus had taught me,” she said.
Recalling her memories of Mohanty being taught ‘Yajnaseni’ by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra in her presence, author Pratibha Ray said,”Kumkum had performed this abhinaya many times on stage and national television and continues to do so gracefully and effortlessly even today.” Mohanty is one of the early disciples of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.
The event was attended by Culture Minister Aswini Patra, Khandapada MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, chief advisor(Office of the Chief Minister) R Balakrishnan and author Pratibha Ray.