Odissi danseuse Debamitra Sengupta and group perform ‘Kanchi Bijay’ at Mukteswar dance festival in Bhubaneswar, Monday
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Bhubaneswar: Kolkata-based Odissi danseuse Debamitra Sengupta and her troupe staged ‘Kanchi Bijay’, a fifteenth century war launched by King Purusottama Dev of Ganga dynasty against Kanchi King, in the form of a graceful dance-drama at the ongoing Mukteswar dance festival here Monday.
The dance-drama, directed and choreographed by Debamitra, presented the bond of love that blossomed in the hearts of Purusottama and Kanchi princess Padmavati soon after Purusottama’s visit to Kanchi. The dancers showed Purusottama’s victory over Kanchi after being humiliated as a sweeper before the three deities of Jagannath temple during Rath Yatra and also the rejection of marriage alliance proposed by Kanchi King. The 45-minute dance-drama was the pioneering effort of Debamitra in presenting Oriya legend in the form of art.
The story was scripted by Pandit Nityananda Mishra and Guru Bijay Jena has directed the music. Around 15 artistes presented the ballet. Instrumentalist who accompanied the group were Guru Bijay Jena and Harapriya Swain in vocal, Guru Bijay Barik in Pakhawaj, Ajay Chowdhury in tabla, Dibakar Parida in percussion, Ramesh Das and Agnimitra Behera in violin, Swapneswar in sitar and Srinivas in flute. Debamitra Sengupta, interna
tionally acclaimed Odissi exponent, has been appreciated both as a performer and choreographer in the field of classical Odissi dance in the country and abroad for the last three decades.
In solo performance, Shalini Patnaik, a young Odissi dancer, performed
‘Pancha Bhoota’. Pancha Bhoota is five great elements, which are the basis of every cosmic creation. They are Prithvi (Earth), Apa/Jal (Water), Agni (Fire), Vayu (Air), Aakash (Eather). Shalini staged various attributes of the elements which also account for different faculties of human experience. Shalini’s second presentation was ‘Rudra Mangalam’ – an invocation to Lord Shiva. City-based artistes Sipra Swain and Aishwariya Singhdev also left the audience enthralled with their duet. They staged ‘Pallavi’ and later ‘Ardhanareeswar’ – a composite androgynous form of Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati. The character is portrayed as half-male and half-female, split down the middle.
