post news network, Bhubaneswar, June 7: While a dance group from Karnataka enthralled the audience at the Rabindra Mandap, Saturday, as the dancers of the group, while performing on a song did a fusion of the Bharatnatyam and the Odissa, two different dance forms belonging to different parts of the country, participants through their performances Sunday reiterated that art and culture doesn’t have any boundary.
Raghunandan, a dance teacher from Bangalore, who also performed during the show said, “We tried to do a new thing. We attempted to show the audience in the city how the same emotions could be displayed in several ways through two different dance forms. Though both the dance forms display emotions beautifully, yet our initiative was liked by the audience here.”
A number of dance performances, drama and songs were presented at the venue, as part of the Gurudakshina Dance Festival. The performances ranged from Bharatnatyam to Odissi and other classical dance forms. The audience present was thrilled. The two-day fest ended Sunday.
A number of people from different walks of life were present in the auditorium to catch a glimpse of the battery of performances lined up during the evenings. Despite rains playing hide and seek during the event Saturday, the programme was a hit, with rain failing to dampen the creative spirit of the city.
Sangita Behera, an Odissi dancer from the city said, “For the last 10 days a number of programmes have been held at various venues across the city. I feel lucky about the fact.
“I am a beginner in Odissi, which I mostly learned at home from a teacher. I came here to learn from other dancers the nuances of the dance form as is practiced by the performing artists.”
Jatin Mohanty, a government official working with the forests department and self-declared dance aficionado, said, “I am fond of dance and plays and I am lucky that I live in a city where a number of programmes are regularly held to cater to the needs of people like me. Seeing the posters displayed outside the auditorium, I decided to come with my family. I am going back richer.”
An Odissi performance by the physically challenged artist Nityananda Das, a painting by Dhaval Khatri, an artist without hands, an Odissi dance recital by Padma Shri Eliana Chitarist and her group and a duet by the Bangalore-based Bharatnatyam dancers Raghunandan and Mansi enthralled the audience Sunday, the second day of the fest.
