Berhampur: Artistes from Berhampur presented vibrant traditional folk dances - such as ranapa, daskathia, paika akhada, dhemsa and danda nata - at the inaugural programme of the Nagar Kala Sanskruti Sangha, organised by the municipal corporation at Khallikote College Stadium on Wednesday night.

"We presented a ranapa performance set to the tune of Kala Kalebara Kanhai, accompanied by musical instruments such as changu, turi, mahuri and jhanja. Ranapa means a stilt. In this dance form, the dancers stand upon stilts and perform the dance," said secretary-cum-teacher at Angahar Nrutyayana Jayant, Kumar Acharya.

Sunil and Sekhar from DJ Group performed daskathia under the guidance of Jitendra Kumar Das. Paika akhada dance by the artists of Real Rock Star displayed the skills of the lathis. Another entertaining performance was dhemsa by the performers of Odissi Nrutyayana.

"Dhemsa is generally performed by the farmers during the month of Chaitra after harvesting paddy," said the Sibaram Barik, a dance teacher. Another attraction was danda nata by the artists of J.R. Group.

"Danda nata is the most ancient of all folk-dances in Ganjam," said the leader of the group Jaydeep.

Lizan Dance Group of Bijipur performed chhau.

The corporation officials felicitated actor Raju Padhi, singer P. Ramchandra and daskathia artist Rabi Narayan Satpathy at the event.