Bhubaneswar, April 9: Chhau, the war dance to depict the readiness of the warrior community of the erstwhile princely state of Mayurbhanj, has been sinking into oblivion over the past few years.

To reinstate the lost tradition of the art form, the Mayurbhanj Chhau Academy project was launched in the district today.

The academy will provide training classes at various places of the district. The courses will teach upcoming generations about the traditional art form. In the first phase, academies will be set up at Baripada, Rairangpur and Karanjia. About 20 students will be inducted at each academy. An initiative by the Mayurbhanj district administration and chhau dancer Subhasree Mukherjee, the move aims to revive the lost roots of Chhau. "The number of chhau artistes from Mayurbhanj has fallen considerably over the past few years. The aim is to create interest in the dance among the people of the district through various measures," said Subhashree.

To initiate a developmental approach in training and performance, a detailed survey of the socio-economic status of the artistes was conducted in the district. The survey team and its members visited every single village where organisations that promoted Chhau interacted with the administration about their problems.

"With the help of the data collected in the survey, interventional measures were planned to improve the standards of living of numerous artistes of chhau in the district and plans were prepared to promote the dance worldwide," Subhashree said.

As a part of the initiatives, Project Chhauni was started last year to facilitate the artistes with an innovative module of training and subsequent performance leading to a respectable livelihood. All basic techniques such as topka, ufli and upa ufli were recorded in a video shoot. "When we interacted with the musicians of Mayurbhanj chhau, it was found that the music created for several dance items by renowned performers of the art form was on the verge of extinction as it was not conserved so far in a recorded form. Therefore, after much research and practice with a group of senior music maestros of Mayurbhanj chhau, it was decided to record more than 80 dance items so that it may be preserved," she added.

A curriculum for standardised training in mahuri and dhola was recorded to train the upcoming musicians. The research findings conserved in digital formats were also launched today.