BHUBANESWAR: Close on the the heels of the recently concluded Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra annual festival that showcased stalwarts of Indian classical dance, the just concluded Devdasi national dance festival offered the connoisseurs glimpses of some of the future faces of Indian classical dances.
The annual festival, now in its fifth edition and being organised by Devdasi Nrutya Mandir, Bhubaneswar in association with Indian Council for Cultural Affairs, showcased 12 young soloists from India and abroad belonging to seven Indian classical dance styles – Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam, Kathak, Manipuri, Sattriya and Odissi - besides the Mahari dance of Puri that is being revived and reconstructed from the extinct ritualistic dance of the devdasis (the temple dancers). Kerala’s Mohiniattam dancer- choreographer-scholar Methil Devika, a star in the making, was conferred the Devdasi National Award for dance this year.
Performing on the inaugural and closing evenings of the three-day event respectively, Puri-based Mahari exponent Rupashree Mohapatra and Mohiniattam exponent Methil, both young and acclaimed artistes – exhibited their amazing grip over expressional aspects of dancing besides thought-provoking choreography. Pune’s Kathak dancer-teacher-choreographer Rujuta Soman, worthy disciple of late legendary Rohini Bhate, proved her potential as a master over pure dance numbers as she presented her performance set to the complex rhythmic patterns of seven and half beats.
It was amazing to come across the incredible perfection and involved dancing of two foreigners – Muslim Manipuri dancer Warda Rihab from Bangladesh and Russian Odissi dancer Vrinda Rani. An MBA from Dhaka University, Warda took up dance as a career and bagged the Gold Medal in Manipuri from Rabindra Bharati University. Similarly, 17-year-old Vrinda’s love for Odissi made her settle down in Vrindavan 12 years ago and she has emerged as a dancer of rare grace, grandeur and power.
Bharatanatyam was represented by two immensely gifted and promising dancers – Navia Natarajan from the USA and Vijna Vasudevan from Chennai, disciple of the world renowned Dhananjayan couple. Both danced into the hearts of the audience too. So did Assam’s Sattriya dancer Shangita Phukon. However, the Kuchipudi artiste Sai Jyothi from Visakhapatnam failed to make any mark.
The Russian dancer apart, the festival featured five more Odissi dancers – Sonali Mohapatra-Nanda, Sanjay Behera and Purnata Mohanty – all from Bhubaneswar – and Pompy Paul and Kaustavi Sarkar – both from Kolkata. Hearing impaired Sonali, disciple of Durga Charan Ranbir staged a mesmerising presentation with her amazing abhinaya.
Similarly, Pompy, disciple of Poushali Mukharjee, and Kaustavi, disciple of Ratikant Mohapatra, also excelled. Even making his debut, Sanjay, the lone male dancer of the festival and topper of this year’s Naveen Kalakar Odissi Festival for budding dancers, was quite impressive. Purnata, however, was not so good in her performance and did not fit into the list of the brilliant dancers that the festival featured.
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