Bhubaneswar, June 3: Back-to-back dance festivals are ready to enthral art enthusiasts with classical performances by young artistes from across the country.

The Devdasi Nrutya Mandir, a cultural organisation, is organising the first edition of Jayadev Samaroh, a festival of classical dances, as a tribute to the celebrated poet Jayadev, who wrote the Geeta Govinda, at Bhanja Kala Mandap here.

The cultural organisation is simultaneously hosting its annual festival, Naveen Kalakar, a talent hunt for young classical dancers.

Besides, Kalashram will shortly host the 10th edition of Guru Dakshina Utsav.

As part of the Jayadev Samaroh, a torch rally will start from Kenduli, the ancient poet's birthplace. The procession will reach the city in the morning. Around 12 dancers will stage solo performances throughout the four-day long festival.

The festival will feature shows of classical dance forms such as Odissi, Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, Sattriya, Kathakali, Manipuri and Mohiniattam. These will be presented by artistes from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Assam, Odisha, and the cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and so on.

Tina Jumonji, an artiste from Brazil, will be performing Odissi on the inaugural day of the event.

Selected artistes will be presented with awards named after the legendary poet, for their promising talent.

The list includes artistes such as Sonali Mohapatra (Odissi), Ragini Chandrashekhar (Bharatnatyam), Gauri Diwakar (Kathak), Rajkumari Geetanjali Devi (Manipuri), Deepa Chakravarthy (Mohini Attam), Pallipurm Sunil (Kathakali), Vedanatam Chalapathy Rao (Kuchipudi), Tarali Das (Sattriya), Purva Dhanashree (Vilasini Nrutyam) and Rakesh Sai Babu (Mayurbhanja Chhau).

Besides this, the Naveen Kalakar talent hunt will also be conducted every morning at the same venue.

"The talent hunt includes scoring systems for different age-based categories. This year, around 100 artistes will showcase their skills at the event. A jury of veteran artistes and critics will judge them," said Jagabandhu Jena, one of the organisers.

Kalashrama, a cultural organisation founded by renowned artiste Nityananda Das, who has excelled as an Odissi dancer despite losing a leg in an accident, will also host its annual Guru Dakshina festival.

"This is the 10th edition of our festival, which will feature performances by eminent artistes on June 6 and 7," said Das.

This festival will be hosted at Rabindra Mandap here.