Artistes from northeast perform at the Octave cultural festival in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 29: Folk dance forms of the eight northeast states regaled art enthusiasts here on yesterday evening.

Octave, a three-day festival of dance and music, organised by Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC), Calcutta, in association with state department of tourism and culture commenced at Utkal Mandap.

The inaugural evening began with Emi-Relo dance of Arunachal Pradesh.

Young girls usually perform this traditional folk dance of Galo tribe after they catch fish for community feasts. The following act was Kushan dance of Assam. The dance form draws its theme from Ramayana.

The Bagrumba dance of the tribal community Bodos from the same state was also very well received. The dance celebrates the mirth of women after daylong labour.

Holding the ends of colourful scarves hung round their necks, the dancers moved forward and backward along with the beats of music.

Lai Haraoba and Thang-Ta dance of Manipur, too, regaled the audience. While the former was a dedication to the gods, the latter was a martial dance using thang (sword) and ta (spear).

Mastieh dance of Meghalaya performed by male dancers of the Khasi community was a thanksgiving act for the harvest. Cheraw dance of Mizoram was the next act where a pair of horizontal bamboo staves was tapped opened and closed in rhythmic beats by people sitting face to face while girls danced in and out of them without losing balance. The artistes imitated gestures of animals and birds in Roina, tribal dance of Nagaland.

Among others, Yak Chham dance of Sikkim was one of the loved performances of the evening.

The dance depicted the movements of the yak and the simple lifestyle of the herdsmen of the mountains. The artistes also moved amidst the crowd that turned out to be a delightful spectacle.

“We loved performing here. The audience did not understand the language, but they applauded our acts and it was very encouraging,” said Samapraya Debbarma, a Lebang Boomani dancer of Tripura.

About 200 artistes from eight north-east states will be performing in Bhubaneswar and Puri during the festival.

While folk and classical dance, fashion show and crafts fair would be showcased at Utkal Mandap here for three days, folk dance will be hosted at Saradhabali in Puri on January 30.

Octave had begun in 2006 in New Delhi and has come to Odisha for the first time.

“The festival seeks to promote and showcase the art and culture of the north-east. Octave helps to create a better understanding about the region’s splendid and harmonised aesthetics among the people from rest of India,” said Samarendra Kumar, director, EZCC.