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| Utsav Das and his troupe perform Ghoda Nacha at a recent event in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph pictures |
Bhubaneswar, Aug. 28: The centuries-old Ghoda Nacha folk dance of the state is a unique form of performing arts. This distinctive dance, which has the ability to tickle the viewers’ funny bone, while educating them about various social or health issues, is struggling to survive.
Ghoda Nacha is essentially a folk dance form of the fishermen community of Odisha known as the Keutas. The art form would have vanished completely had it not been for the efforts of Utsav Das of Choudwar near Cuttack, who has kept it alive for the past five decades.
“The Ghoda Nacha of the Keuta community dates back to the Mahabharat, in which the mythological character of Satyavati hails from the fishermen community. This dance used to be performed by my ancestors and I learnt it from my grandfather and father. However, I am worried about what will happen to the art form that I have dedicated my whole life to, since there are not many trained artistes who would perform it after me,” said the 68-year-old Das.
After quitting his job, Das took up the dance form when he was a teenager, to save this folk art. He even introduced innovations to suit the urban audience while keeping all its traditional elements intact.
“The dance was originally performed only during the eight-day festival of Chaitra Purnima by our community members. The male artistes would enter a decorated dummy horse and dance to songs written in the dialect of the community. This performance was known as Chaiti Ghoda.
“In old days, a Keuta couple would sing the songs. A male artiste would enact the part of a woman. But to make the art form realistic, I trained female artistes to perform the role of the Keuta woman. I took the songs I had learnt as a kid and included instances of modern life,” he said.
In Das’s performances, one gets to see the Chaiti Ghoda artistes in the background while he and a female artiste perform as the Keuta couple, who argue through songs about the changing times. This includes immense humour as well as foot-tapping music.
“Though the audience’s applause is more than enough reward for me, I am worried about the future of Ghoda Nacha. There are no upcoming artistes who are dedicated to the art form and none who are trained intensely. Sometime ago, I had trained a couple of artistes for few months under a project of Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre. But that was scrapped and now there is no arrangement to train new artistes,” said Das.
The Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi award winner said so far no extensive research or documentation has been done on the art form.
“With my limited earnings, I cannot afford to arrange for the documentation of Ghoda Nacha or train new artistes. I hope the state government organises frequent workshops so that new talents can be groomed,” he said.
Secretary of the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi, Chitta Mallia said the organisation was planning to document dying art forms such as Ghoda Nacha and had an annual action plan for the benefit of the artistes. “We have now formed cultural organisations at the block and district levels to ensure promotion of folk arts,” he said.