Rebecca (right) performs in Majuli in 2010. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, Oct. 31: A bond of friendship and passion to be a part of the festivities have made a young lady travel all the way from France to Majuli in Assam to participate in the Raas Utsav this year.

Rebecca Villaret, 22, an anthropology student from Aix-Marseille University in Provence, France, arrived in Majuli yesterday and began rehearsals today under the guidance of guru Gobinda Kalita at Uttar Kamalabari guest house.

She will perform as a gopi at the Sanmilita Silpi Samaj-organised three-day Raas Utsav at the Rajiv Gandhi sport complex at Kamalabari from November 6.

“It is my love for the monks at the various xatras in Majuli and my passion to be a part of the festivities at Majuli that I have arrived here,” Villaret told The Telegraph today.

The raas festival is a part and parcel of Majuli’s culture with almost every xatra hosting it during winter. The Sanmilita Silpi Samaj has been organising it for the past eight years.

This is Villaret’s third visit to Majuli. She had performed in a similar role in 2010. That was the first time in the history of Majuli that a foreign national had taken part in the raas festival.

“I came to Majuli in 2009 to carry out a study on the culture of Majuli and the way life of the people in the island. I fell in love with the islanders since then,” she said.

The next year, she returned to Majuli in connection with her studies and she was given the opportunity to perform.

Gobinda Kalita said Villaret was interested in Xattriya dance and when she was asked whether she would like to participate she had agreed.

“It was not only the dance that she performed to perfection but she also delivered a few dialogues in 2010,” Kalita, the dance director of the Sanmilita Silpi Samaj-organised raas, said.

Villaret will rub shoulders with veteran actress Prastuti Parashar, who will play the roles of Daibaki and Yashoda separately over three days.

She said her first tryst with the dance was in 2008 when a cultural troupe from Uttar Kamalabari Satra had visited France. “I saw one of their performances and was impressed and wanted to visit Majuli. The next year I got the opportunity to visit Majuli because of the study sponsored by the ministry of culture,” she said.

Her earlier visit to Majuli was in connection with her study but this time it was purely because of the bond she had built with the monks of the island. “I am here for two weeks and I am planning to enjoy it fully,” she said.