First Ever National Festival of Mayurbhanj Chhau ‘Naatki’ To Begin Today

Bhubaneswar: The National Festival of Mayurbhanj Chhau ‘Naatki’ will be held for the first time in Odisha’s capital on Friday and Saturday, December 16-17).

Many renowned artistes like Santosh Nair from Sadhya New Delhi, Rakesh Sai Babu from Trikaya Foundation New Delhi, Carolina Prada from Columbia will perform at the event. Entry will be free from 6.30 pm – 9.30 pm at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar.

The artistes of Mayurbhanj Chhau performing Unit of Project Chhauni, who belong to different blocks of the district, will perform in creative productions choreographed by Vidushi Shama Bhate from Pune and Padmasree Dr Ileana Citarist, Bhubaneswar along with Nichuapada Uttarsahi Chhau Nrutya Pratisthan of Moroda Block.

The ‘Naatki’ festival will combine contemporary and traditional dance items of Mayurbhanj Chhau.

On the first day, there will be four performances- ‘Pratibimb’, ‘Nataraj’, Keuta Keuntuni’ and ‘Karam’. Minister of Odia Language Literature and Culture Department Aswini Kumar Patra will be the chief guest. Additional Chief Secretary of the department, Satyabrata Sahu and Maharani of Mayurbhanj, Rashmi Rajyalaxmi Bhanjdeo will also attend the event along with Managing Director of Odisha State Medical Corporation (OSMC) Poma Tudu, Mayurbhanj Collector Vineet Bharadwaj.

There will be three performances on the following day- ‘Panchabhoota’, ‘Yodhha’, and The Mystical Forest which will be attended by Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs and Jal Shakti Bisweshwar Tudu, Maharaja of Mayurbhanj Praveen Chandra Bhanjdeo and Chairman of Sangeet Natak Academi, Sandhya Purecha.

‘Project Chhauni’, an initiative of the Mayurbhanj District Administration, began in 2016 “to preserve and promote the art form and provide a livelihood to the artistes.”

It conducted a survey in Mayurbhanj which covered 202 social organisations and 11,738 people who performed as well as played music in ‘chhau’ previously. After auditioning more than 400 artistes, the performing unit was created in 2017.

“We have 60 dancers and 24 musicians in the unit who will perform in places across the country and abroad. The income will go directly to the artistes,” Executive Director of Project Chhauni Subhasree Mukherjee told Odisha Bytes.

Mukherjee said that under this project, children in the age group of 8-18 are trained in two batches in basic techniques at Mayurbhanj Chhau Academy in Baripada. “After the training session, the students will join the performing unit,” she said. Several workshops on ‘Chhau’ are also conducted throughout the year to train the students by ‘gurus’ from outside the state.

Asked about plans to open a dance academy in Bhubaneswar, she said “If we get support from the people, artistes, and the government we will surely go in for a centre in the capital city.”