International Choreographer Anupam Nayak Turns Soulful With A Bhajan Video

Bhubaneswar:  Having made a mark with Odia video songs in his Zumba classes and winning international acclaim, US-based choreographer and contemporary dance instructor, Anupam Nayak aka Anupam Z Choreographer has now come up with another music video. This time it is an Odia bhajan, ‘Abasista Jeevana’.  The teaser was released on Friday.

Speaking to Odisha Bytes, he said this was a humble attempt to popularise the rich culture and music of Odisha in places across the seas. Bajrang Satpathy has rendered his voice to the bhajan composed by Basant Mishra. The lyrics are by Sasmal Manas. The video has been directed by Anupam himself and features Ashok Panigrahi, an NRI. The video will be released in September.

“We just finished shooting for another music video, which is a remix of the popular Odia number Na jare naja gori bali jatara dekhi, on Brooklyn Bridge. I am hopeful that people will enjoy this new version of the song, which we will be released in October,” said Anupam. The video of the song will feature Anupam with his wife, Amrita.

Prior to this, he had come up with two music videos ‘Toka Mu Odia’ in March and ‘Halijayee America’ in September last year.

While ‘Toka Mu Odia’ was shot in New York, Anupam completed the post-production work in Odisha during his visit to the hometown, where he also held Zumba workshops.

This Odisha lad, who has been making the Americans dance to Sambalpuri music beats during the workout sessions, recently released a video where his class is seen sweating it out while dancing to the peppy version of the popular Odia song Mana Udi Jaaye Re.

However, this was not his first attempt. He has used popular folk numbers Jai Phoola, Sagada Gadi, Dāmerā Rābidelā Lo to the same effect in the past.

“Zumba is performed on Spanish, Latin American, African and Country music. Through such attempts I want to introduce Odia music to the world while making our youngsters aware of our rich folk tradition,” he said.

At the recent 49th OSA Michigan Convention 2018, Anupam had the Odia community swinging to these peppy numbers, with music playing non-stop for almost two hours. “I was pleasantly surprised to see people waiting for my performance and to share the stage with me. I treasure those moments,” he said.

Anupam received his international license and certification from Zumba Fitness, a large network of Zumba instructors from across the world in 2016. Never one to be interested in studies, Anupam was smitten by the Bollywood bug as a youngster and used to idolize Prabhu Deva. His passion for dance brought him to Delhi 2009, where he honed his dancing skills. Later, he moved back to Bhubaneswar to spread awareness about Zumba and to popularize the dance form. His craving to improve upon his techniques took him to USA where he has now accomplished two more levels in Zumba.