It was in Vegas that dancer Harihar Dash gave birth to a new age Krishna. He made the Lord gracefully sway to locking and popping and street dancing. Performing on the very popular song from the Beatles, Here Comes the Sun, the Odia lad presented a fusion of east and west. He is now working relentlessly to develop a new genre that would have the aggression of locking and popping, the dynamism of contemporary and the lyrical grace, the soft movements and the laya in classical.
Harihar’s Krishna avatar touched new heights of popularity, thanks to a one-year contract with Cirque Du Soleil, a well-known Canadian Entertainment Company, that gave him the opportunity to perform all over the world. “In America, I made the Lord perform for over 400 times,’’ says the locking and popping sensation.
From among the 80 artists that the company had picked from across the world, only three had bagged the chance to perform solo concerts and Harihar was one of them. Although he had a chance to renew the contract and go easy, Harihar chose the difficult path and came back home armed with an action plan. It has been eight months since his return but Harihar seems to be in no mood to stop. Despite facing the challenges in a smaller city like Bhubaneswar, he has scripted a success story. ‘’I could have continued with the contract but I had learnt a lot in a year’s time. I wanted to pass it on to people in my city,’’ says Harihar. The dance opened by him has a handful of students who are trying to follow his steps.
Talking about his love for the Krishna act, Harihar feels that the whole idea of popularising this image of Lord Krishna has been to dispel notions that the Lord can only go the classical way when it comes to dance.
“Lord Krishna is known for his playfulness. It can be expressed beautifully even through locking and popping or street dancing. I am adding Remo’s flute compositions to the act and giving it a semi classical touch . The audiences are liking it,’’ says Harihar who has performed the act for about seven times in the last eight months.
On creating a new form of dance, Harihar explains that the idea had been planted in his mind when he performed in an advertisement in 2010. He shot to fame after performing at a reality show. ‘’For that particular advertisement, they wanted a mixture of ballet and popping. That was when I realised different forms of dance could come together for something very beautiful. Then, Cirque Du Soleil happened and Krishna gave me a new direction. My comfort in the locking and popping style has allowed me to explore several movements and aspects of classical genre,’’ he points out.
Having made his debut in Odiya cinema in 2011, the dancing sensation says he is presently getting a few more acting offers. He believes that everyone can dance. “You need to have the passion and the moves will follow automatically,’’ he says. While he is leaving no stone unturned to popularise his modern age Krishna with more and more performances, he has also opened his own dance school in the city.