Maria Laura Valdez performs Odissi at the sixth Devdasi National Dance Festival in Bhubaneswar and (below) Sampurna Baliarsing performs Mahari dance at the event. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 13: The Devdasi National Dance festival kickstarted yesterday at Rabindra Mandap in the city to celebrate classical dance and its spiritual connection.

The sixth edition of the annual dance festival will showcase all the eight classical dance forms of the country.

The three-day festival began with the Mahari dance of Orissa, which used to be performed in praise of Lord Jagannath within the Puri temple.

Sampurna from Puri performed this dance. Baliarsingh, who hails from Udayan Dance Academy founded by Adi Guru Pankaj Charan Das, depicted the different sevas and various traditional worship rituals of Lord Jagannath at the temple.

Her subtle expressions and nimble feet were as captivating as the gorgeous traditional Devdasi costume she wore. Wearing flower garlands in her hair and around her neck and wrist, Sampurna danced to the tunes of songs rendered at the temple on festive occasions. Peruvian dancer Maria Laura Valdez and Pakistani dancer Monalisa Subhadarshini bedazzled the audience with their graceful and rhythmic movements during their Odissi performances on the inaugural day.

The tunes of folk instruments of Assam were mesmerising, as was the performance of danseuse Pratibha Sharma from Guwahati, during her Sattriya rendition. Sinam Basu Singh’s Manipuri recital was a charming presentation of poise and artistic expressions.

“The variety of dance forms shown at the festival was a delight. The performances were magical,” said Ankita Das, a viewer.

In the next two days, promising artistes will present Kathak, Mohini Attam, Kathakali, Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi, while Odissi will be presented everyday. Well-known dancers such as Vidhal Lal from New Delhi, Rasmi Raj from Nritya Gram, Akshara Mohan Das from Kerala, Probal Gupta and Prateeksha Kashi from Bangalore and many others will perform at the mega classical dance event.

“The purpose of this event is to bring together all classical dance forms and express its spiritual content to the audience, since all of them have their roots in temple rituals. In fact, there are still many dance forms such as Mahari, which was practised in temples earlier.

However, these are slowly fading out since they were confined to the sanctum,” said Jagabandhu Jena, secretary of Devdasi Nrutya Mandir, which organised the event.

The Devdasi Award for dance will be presented to Bharatnatyam dancer Mythili Prakash on Friday, which is also the concluding day of the event. Prakash will also perform on that day.