Debasish Patnaik, who hails from Rourkela, has created a mark as an Odissi dancer at both the national and international level. A disciple of Durga Charan Ranbir, Debasish has performed in more than 42 countries and won multiple awards. The young dancer spoke to Orissa POST recently.
Debasish took to dancing at an early age. “When I was six years old, I watched the music video of Tu cheez badi hai mast mast on television. I started imitating the dance steps. This was my first brush with dancing,” he says.
Gradually, Debasish perfected the dance steps and started performing to this number at various dance shows and competitions. This won him plenty of accolades. “One of my aunts said that my physique was perfect for classical dance and suggested that I should learn Odissi. Her daughter was attending Odissi classes and I started learning with her in Rourkela,” he says.
That was in 1993. Debasish started attending Odissi dance classes without informing his parents. He used to pay the fee from the money he had carefully saved in his piggy bank. “My father was initially against the idea after he came to know that I was learning Odissi. He felt that dancing was meant for girls. But I was so determined that he had to give in to my wish. Later, he took me to Kashinath Roul, a well-known Odissi dancer in Rourkela. I took lessons from him for nine years,” says Debasish.
In 2002, he started learning dance from Guru Sri Durga Charan Ranbir in Bhubaneswar. “I am lucky to have him as my guru. He gave me several opportunities to perform both in and outside the country,” he adds.
Born to Dibyasingh and Sandhyarani Patnaik, Debasish says, “My father used to sing in his college days, while my mother was into theatre. But no one in my family is into dance. I am the only dancer in my entire family. Initially, my parents felt a bit awkward about the fact that their son was a dancer, while the children of their friends took academics seriously and aspired to become doctors or engineers.”
“My first moment of glory was when I performed at Goshala Vedavyas Mahotsav, an inter Rourkela competition, where prominent Odissi dancer Kumkum Mohanty was one of the judges. After watching my performance, she called up my father and advised him to allow me to train further,” says the dancer, who started taking dancing more seriously after that and applied for junior scholarship in 1997.
Debasish has to his credit quite a few prestigious national and international awards. In 2003, he performed at the Konark Dance & Music Festival as part of his guru’s troupe. In 2005, he received the Guru Sishya Parampara Award and earned a senior national scholarship from the Ministry of Culture. In 2007, the same year he completed his graduation in Arts, Debasish received the Sringara Mani award from the then President of India Pratibha Patil.
“I started performing in international destinations like Singapore, Malaysia, Jakarta, Thailand, Java, Sumatra and Mauritius. In 2008, I won the gold medal in the master’s degree course (Nrutyabhaskar) in Odissi from Prachina Kala Kendra, Chandigarh,” says Debasish, who also launched his dance institute Devanrutyam Studio in Rourkela in 2009.
He also has a dance studio in Bangalore and organises annual dance festivals like Nartakah (an Indian classical dance fest for men), Rudra Dhara, Smruti Shradhanjali and Mithila Utsav both in Rourkela and Bangalore.
“Odissi dance is associated with the culture of Lord Jagannath and has an international appeal. That is the reason I organise these festivals not only in Rourkela but also in Bangalore and attend workshops outside the country,” says Debasish who will be flying off to Malaysia next week to attend a workshop, followed by another couple of workshops in Mexico and London.
Besides Odissi, Debasish likes Kathak and has learnt it for eight years. “Once, I had the opportunity to share the stage with Kathak dancer Ketaki Bhattacharya, Odissi dance exponent Dona Ganguly and actress and dancer Rakhi Sawant,” says Debasish.
BRATATI BARAL, OP
