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| Nilanjana Mukherjee |
The six-day (December 8-13) Udayshankar Dance Festival, organised by West Bengal State Music Academy in association with West Bengal Dance Group Federation at Rabindra Sadan, reflected the grim and gloomy state of the dance scenario in West Bengal.
Among the 33 dancers, barring a few, most of the performers were mechanical and their presentations, bereft of spontaneity. Composed by Bharti Shivaji, an ashtapadi lalita labangalata was presented by Mom Ganguly, a senior Mohiniattam dancer. A poorly taped music ruined the beautiful composition and erased the soul of a lively presentation. A Bharatnatyam duet by Sanchita Saha and Rajib Khan reflected nothing more than apparent speed and a commendable energy level. However, Baharampur Nrityangan’s Kathak choreography, under the guidance of Paramita Moitra, deserves special mention.
Dona Ganguly in her Odissi repertoire was confident while Prakriti Purush by Janhabi Centre for Performing Arts was praiseworthy. Bharatnatyam dancer Madhubani Chatterjee’s choreography of Dashavatar in a new dimension deserves special mention.
Nritya Umang by Samskriti Shreyaskar was full of rhythm and joy while Rajib Bhattacharya presented a pure dance number, tarana pallavi.
Shiva Pancha Mahima by Goudiya Nritya Bharati under the tutelage of Mahua Mukhopadhyay lacked delicate grace and the subtle hues of an aesthetic presentation. Jayant Kastuar, Emelee Ghosh, Sreyoshi Dey, Debomitra Sengupta were some of the other dancers.
Nilanjana Mukherjee was neat in her invocatory number of Odissi recital, praising Goddess Durga. The presentation was choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra.
There were also solo and group performances of different classical styles at the Rabindra Sadan Open Air Stage.
Arnab Banerjee was sincere in his solo Odissi presentation. Baisali Basu-Sarkar, disciple of Preeti Patel, was graceful in her solo Manipuri performance. Arkadev Bhattacharya and Mrittika Bhattacharya’s Bharatnatyam and Odissi duet was technically sound while Kaberi Puitandy (Kar) performed Goudiya Nritya with much enthusiasm.
