Dancers Satabdi Samantaray and (below) Jyoti Ranjan Das perform Odissi at the International Odissi Dance Festival, 2013, at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 26: Odissi dancers from various parts of the world are showcasing their talent at the International Odissi Dance Festival that began at the Rabindra Mandap today.

The five-day festival, which is hosted by the state culture and tourism departments, is being organised by the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre.

The festival was initiated in 2006 by the Odissi Research Centre to help dancers, trained under different gurus and from different parts of the globe, to interact, improvise and learn from each other.

“Bringing Odissi dancers from across the country and abroad on to a single platform was the foremost objective of the festival when it had began. Today we continue the festival with the same view and also to assess the performances of the participating dancers from perspectives such as style, technique, costume, music, movements and mudras of Odissi,” said Sushil Kumar Das, director culture and chief executive officer of the Odissi Research Centre.

As many as 250 dancers, along with 200 musicians, will perform over five days. The festival has two sessions every day, the first from 4 pm to 6 pm and the second from 6.30 pm onwards.

“Every day there would be nine solo dances, five duets and three group Odissi performances,” informed Aruna Mohanty, prominent dancer and vice-president of the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi. “This year there are 150 Odissi dancers from within the state and 60 from other states of India. There are 30 dancers from other countries including Italy, USA, Japan, Malaysia, Germany, Poland and Sri Lanka,” she said.

To give a fair chance to upcoming artistes, none of the dancers who took part in 2011 and 2012 will perform this year.

The inaugural programme began with a solo recital by Bagmishree Das from Rourkela. USA-based dancers Alyssa Sahu and Arundhati Chakraborty also presented solo dance items.

“We are glad to be a part of this amazing festival that is a stage for budding as well as senior artistes. It will be an enriching experience to watch dancers from different regions,” said a member of the Nrutya Sangeeta Kala Mandira troupe from Balasore that performed the concluding item today.