Dancers Put Up An Impressive Show With Odissi Dance Drama, Ballet

Bhubaneswar: The two-day annual dance festival ‘Nrutyambada’ of Odisha Dance Academy at Rabindra Mandap here drew to a close on Sunday.

The second day of the festival opened with Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s composition ‘Devi Stutee’, followed by ‘Palli Nrutya’, ‘Mohana Pallavi’ and ‘Basanta Pallavi’.

Sourthern Odisha’s tribal dance ‘Dhemsa’ and ‘Sheetakamala’, a beautiful excerpt from Jayadev’s Geeta Govinda were the other attractions of the evening.

The evening concluded with Odissi dance drama ‘Kanchi Abhijana’ choreographed by Guru Aruna Mohanty.

The inaugural day saw around 400 students of different age groups performing Odissi, Sambalpuri, Gotipua, Odissi Ballet, tribal dance and Palli.

The evening’s first performance was ‘Nagaballi Pallavi’ choreographed by Guru Aruna Mohanty. The synchronized, graceful movement of dancers left the audience spellbound. ‘Naari’, a dance ballet which followed, was a tribute to women’s struggle to live life with dignity in a patriarchal society. The dancers portrayed ‘Kunti, ‘Draupadi’ and ‘Nirbhaya’ to put across the message. The dance ballet was musically composed by Guru Ramahari Das and sung by Roopak Parida.

“We had earlier presented this ballet in the USA. But here it was for the first time,” said Mohanty .

Small children performed Palli Nrutya ‘Chhota Mora Gaanti’ followed by ‘Batu Nrutya’, a composition of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.

The dancers also presented ‘Aama Gaan Maati’, ‘Om Namah Shivay’, ‘Shankaravaran Pallavi’, ‘Kumar Purnima’, ‘Bisheswar Vandana’ , ‘Aarvi Pallavi’ and ‘Dhemsa Dance’.  Senior disciples of the ODA performed ‘Dashabatara’ and ‘Gotipua’ towards the end of the day.