Dancer Rama Vaidyanathan will perform at Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 21: Two major dance festivals will be hosted here in the coming month in which eminent artistes will perform.

One of the most awaited events of the year is the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival. Organised by Srjan and dedicated to its founder, Odissi maestro Kelucharan Mohapatra, the festival will enter its 19th edition this year and as always will be hosted from September 5 to 9.

Artistes, who have contributed immensely to art and culture via their craft, will be awarded and major dancers will be seen performing at the five-day festival that is held at Rabindra Mandap every year.

“We have invited noted dancers as well as young artistes. Famous Bharatnatyam dancer Rama Vaidyanathan will be performing at our festival. Young sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee is also expected to present his rendition. We will soon be announcing the names of other artistes to perform at the event. Following our tradition, like every year this time too our troupe from Srjan will showcase a unique dance choreography,” said Ratikant Mohapatra, the festival director.

Another major festival is the Devdasi international dance festival that will be hosted from September 24 to 26. The festival that showcases classical dance forms that have emerged from temple traditions will include 12 performances with Odissi to be staged everyday. Eight other dance forms, namely Mahari, Bharatnatyam, Kathakali, Sattriya, Manipuri, Mohiniattam, Kuchipudi and Kathak will also be presented at the three-day fest.

“Mahari dancer Shilpa Mohanty from Puri, Bharatnatyam artiste Lavanya Ananth from Chennai, Kathakali by Kotak Devdas (Kerala), Sattriya artiste Anita Sharma (Guwahati), Mohiniattam dancer Jayaprabha Menon from Mumbai, Kuchipudi artiste Shalu Jindal and Kathak dancer Vidha Lal from New Delhi will be performing at our festival. That apart, everyday an artiste from abroad will perform,” said organiser Jagabandhu Jena.

Yukie Sato and Akane Hoshino from Japan will perform Odissi on different days while Natalie Rout from London and Sandhya Manoj from Malaysia will also present the state’s classical dance form. Similarly, Sohini Ray from USA will showcase Manipuri at the festival of solo dances.

Kotak Devdas, Vidha Lal, Anita Sharma, Sohini Ray, Jayaprabha Menon, Shalu Jindal, Rama Vaidyanathan and ace Odissi danseuse Sujata Mohapatra will be conferred awards at the festival, also to be hosted at Rabindra Mandap.