Ode to maestro

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 4: Get set for a fest beyond the usual annual dance and music festival.

Ratikanta Mohapatra, the son of Odissi doyen Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, is set to host “Purush Dance Festival” on the occasion of the guru’s 82nd birth anniversary. The all-male festival would aim to encourage young men dancers and offer them a platform.

The venture is to encourage the untiring spirit and commitment in a male dancer’s mind through training, performance and practice.

The festival would be organised in two parts each day and would include a national seminar on significant aspects and application of Odissi dance, music, Odissi mardala by eminent artistes and scholars, followed by evening sessions.

The second half would include three dance recitals each evening by budding and brilliant solo male dancers of India. The festival would be organised here by Srijan in collaboration with Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya between January 8 and 10.

The focus of the festival is to revive the all-important role of the male solo dancer.

“To be born into the family of the legendary maestro of Odissi dance was an advantage for me. But I have come across many in the fraternity who fail to make it to the top due to lack of a platform. Many grudge that the gender plays a vital role in dance and dance connoisseurs are more keen on enjoying performances by female dancers,” said Mohapatra.

“Shedding this myth, we have tried to focus on the male genre this time and portray their skills and aesthetics,” he said.

“The excellence and variety of the dancers performing in this festival and the scholars speaking at the seminar, we believe, would bring up a whole knowledge and appreciation of Indian dance,” said Mohapatra.

Pabitra Bhatt would display Bharatnatyam skills, Nitin P. Shirale would present Kathak, while P. Girish Chandra would present Kuchipudi apart from those performing Odissi.

Seminars on purusha anga soundarjya (the aesthetics of male body movement), sangrachna, Odissi music and Odissi mardala would be held on the occasion.