Odissi dancers perform Geet Govinda in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 10: The immortal ballads, praising Lord Krishna and his romantic endeavours inscribed in the Geet Govinda by poet Jaydev, will now be presented in a musical dance form in the city.

The Sri Geetagovinda Pratisthan, Pondicherry, is to host a two-phase festival to showcase all 24 ashtapadis in dance, and the entire Geet Govinda in vocal renditions.

Ashtapadi, the festival of dance, will depict the poems of love with Odissi. The festival will be hosted at Rabindra Mandap from September 12 to 14. The dance will be based on live music that is adapted from the original score made by former Odisha chief secretary Subas Pani, well-known scholar on Jaydev and the Geet Govinda.

Renowned Odissi guru late Gangadhar Pradhan and senior dancer-choreographers Aruna Mohanty, Sharmila Biswas and Meera Das, along with Pani, have choreographed the 24 Odissi recitals. These have been showcased in Delhi in the first two editions of the festival during 2010 and 2011. The Geetagovinda Pratisthana has now brought this festival to Bhubaneswar on the occasion of the release of Odia book Sampoorna Geetagovinda by Pani on the inaugural day of the dance festival.

For the book Sampoorna Geetagovinda, a group of scholars, led by Pani, finalised the original text of the musical epic after extensive research on several original commentaries. “The book provides a critical view of the authentic text with variant readings, meanings, translations and a comprehensive introduction,” said Pani.

The dance festival will be followed by a musical celebration at Jayadev Bhavan, wherein songs from the album Sampoorna Geetagovinda will be rendered by senior Odissi artistes such as Bijay Kumar Jena, Keshab Raut, Sukant Kumar Kundu and Sangeeta Gosain. This will take place on September 15 and 16.