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An evening of Odissi
Rekha, Rashmi and Deepti... good understanding.
A CHANGE from the Bharatanatyam routine was provided by an evening of Odissi at Kalakshetra's auditorium. All Odissi seen in Chennai has pertained to the form patented by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.
For Kalakshetrans, it must have been a first exposure to the Deba Prasad style of Odissi when the Meera Dance Academy of Pondicherry, founded by Sangeeta Dash, presented a day long event of demonstration reinforced by evening performances of Odissi, in an event dedicated to the late guru.
The star of the evening was Sangeeta Dash, her presentation of Sooryashtakam followed by the Ashtapadi, "Yahi Madhava," showing the dancer's intensity in restraint.
There is a stillness about Sangeeta's dance, which communicates powerfully and her perfect nritta has a minimalism in its clean lines with no unnecessary gestures or movements, very much in the style of her earlier guru Debaprasad Das.
Sangeeta is now under the tutelage of Debaprasad's senior disciple Durgacharan Ranbir.
The well executed bhramaris retaining the chauka position right through were a treat.
The other impressive dancer of the evening was Surendra Khuntia, this male dancer also trained under Durgacharan. His presentation of Ashta Shambhu captured the full magnificence of Siva.
Rekha, Rashmi and Deepti, also disciples of Durgacharan, combined well in the Pallavi in Kedarkamod. Their rendition of Dasavatar, though a trifle dramatised showed good group understanding.
Sangeeta Dash... star of the evening.
Of the two young sons of Prabhas Mahanti who made a duet of the Sthai, the younger, Rajnikant, shows great promise.
The older Santosh has to improve his laya, which is faulty. Sonali Singh, a disciple of Niranjan Raut has to decide on what style of Odissi she wants to represent.
She is attempting an imitation of Kelucharan's style while learning from one who has studied under Debaprasad for a while.
The result is exaggerated deflections and willowy body bends making for nondescript Odissi.
With her fine presence and face, which reacts strongly, she has potential that is crying out for proper disciplining.
Both the Pallavi and the abhinaya item, "Tribhanga Bhangire Shyama Nachuchanti," made little impression, given her stylistic confusion.
Sreekantha Panda sang well in spite of a poor sound system that made voices echo. Dhaneswar Swain provided good mardal support.
Pradeep Roy on the violin and Naba Prasad Behera on the flute provided the right accompaniment.
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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