Artistes perform a Sambalpuri dance at the Vedvyas cultural festival in Rourkela. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 6: Classical music and dance connoisseurs in Rourkela are making most of the opportunity to enjoy performances by reputed artistes at the ongoing six day Vedvyas Sangeet Nrutyotsav that started on November 1.

Into its 16th edition this year, the festival organised by Bhanja Kala Kendra at Bhanja Bhavan here is a kaleidoscope of presentations by many cultural troupes of Odisha along with those from other states.

The organisers said that the festival that started at a small scale has reached the national level with many renowned artistes from various parts of the country taking part in this festival and enthralling the local people with their performances.

“This year we have participants from Punjab, New Delhi, Calcutta and Jharakhand along with various cultural troupes from Sambalpur, Puri, Bhubaneswar and Athamalik,” said Prasant Mohanty, president of the organisation.

On the inaugural day, artistes of Bhanja Kala Kendra performed an Odissi dance drama. Guru Durga Charan Ranbir directed the drama.

This was followed by Sambalpuri folk dance by Sambalpur Kala Parishad. The last programme of the evening was the Bhangra dance of Punjab, performed by Harmanpreet and group of Gurudaspur.

On the second evening, the audience witnessed a guitar concert by artistes of the host organisation. Bharatnatyam by Calcutta artiste Sangeeta Aich Bhowmick and her troupe was performed later.

The third event of the evening was Danda nacha by a troupe from Athamallick, which was followed by the famous Giddha dance of Punjab.

On Monday, Odissi vocal by guru Ramahari Das followed by Mardal programme by guru Dhaneswar Swain received appreciation. Last programme of the evening was Hindustani instrumental by Narsimhalu Vadavati of Bangalore.

On the fourth evening the host organisation presented a violin concert while a group Odissi dance programme by Swapnarani and troupe of Angul followed it. People got to see Mahari Nurtya by Rupashree Mohapatra and her troupe from Puri and a Sambalpuri dance by the Bhanja Kala Kendra. On the final evening on Wednesday, the host organisation will present Odissi Brunda Gyana and this will be followed by Odissi dance by Kakali Paramguru. Moumala Nayak and troupe of New Delhi would perform a group Kathak Dance.

The final programme of the festival would be Sankha and Dhala Nrutya by artistes from Narendrapur in Ganjam.

“Over 300 artistes are taking part in this festival. Not only as an industrial city, we aim to develop Rourkela as a cultural hub of the state by organising such festivals,” said Mohanty.