Bhubaneswar’s Priyanka Patra, A Classical Dancer & An Award Winner Terracotta Artist

Bhubaneswar: She is an accomplished classical dancer, an award winner terracotta artist and a doting mother, all rolled into one. Meet Priyanka Patra from Kalinga Vihar in the city.

Priyanka teaches Odissi and Kathak in a dance school. Though she has a supportive husband, she cannot go for stage performance very often as she has to look after her child.

For Priyanka, childhood was not easy though she had passion for dancing since she was a child. “For my mother, I could find an artist in me. We had a joint family and fighting with all odds, my mother took me and my sister for dance training. She used to sit with me in the institute till my classes were over. My husband also supports me a lot in my work after my marriage,” said Priyanka.

Besides being a dancer and teaching it to children, Proyanka makes terracotta items depicting the history and culture of Odisha and home decors including wall hangings, flower vases and idols.

She learnt terracotta art from State Institute for Development of Arts & Crafts. “When I took admission in the terracotta college, I did not know anything about it. But, the day I touched clay, I never stopped giving shapes to it,” she said,

“With the help of my husband, I used to exhibit my work in some exhibitions like Mrittika and Toshali Mela. As I have a child to look after, I cannot go outside the state for the exhibitions,” she added. She has created a small museum of her creations at her home.

Priyanka won the state award for a unique ‘Pata Hati’ (royal elephant) at Toshali Mela in 2020. “The ‘Pata Hati’ was a five-piece work including elephant, king, queen and soldiers. I had used red clay in that art work. The height of the ‘Pata Hati’ was five feet. I t took me two months to complete it,” said Priyanka.

“I have learnt a lot from my father-in-law Debraj Sahoo, a well-known terracotta artist of Odisha and my inspiration too,” she said adding that she has been practising dance and doing terracotta work for the last 15 years.

“My aim is to popularise the terracotta work among the people. I also want to add varieties to home decors and other products so that people can use it for different purposes,” she said.