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Bhubaneswar, Sept. 25: Devotion and love was portrayed in myriad ways at the inaugural evening of the Devdasi National Dance Festival at Rabindra Mandap on Tuesday.
Odisha’s unique temple ritual dance form of Mahari and a number of other classical dance forms that owe their genesis to the temples were performed at the festival.
Puri-based Mahari dancer Rupashree Mohapatra opened the festival with her performance depicting the Devdasi’s services during various festivals of the Jagannath temple.
She showcased the Badasinghara besa and the Chandan yatra rituals of Lord Jagannath in her act when Mohapatra was seen adorning flower garlands from head to toe.
After this devotional dance, Chennai girl Lavanya Ananth started off with the ancient Shiv tandav believed to be composed by Ravan, the mythological anti-hero of epic Ramayan.
Based on raga Malika and tal Malika, the dancer performed in sync with the changing beats of the composition of the tandav.
She gave a brief idea about the gist of her rendition before performing each sequence. The glory of Lord Shiv and the curbing of Ravan’s ego were depicted well by the young dancer. She also enacted an episode from Odisha’s literary jewel, Jayadev’s Geeta Govinda.
She performed on an ashtapadi or poem from Geeta Govinda that was replete with romantic feelings of Radha for Krishna.
Later, Japanese Odissi dancer Yukie Sato presented her rendition.
“It is amazing to see that despite being an Odissi dancer from Japan, she tried to be as authentic as possible. Whereas dancers who live right here in the state capital carry out too many experiments and fusion of other dance forms,” said Jyoti Priyadarshini, a young art enthusiast.
Another highlight of the first evening of Devdasi festival’s eighth edition was a captivating Kathakali rendition by Kottakal Devadas.
The three day festival is organised by city-based Devdasi Nrutya Mandir.
