Bhubaneswar, June 18: Delectable fares of dance and music were on offer at Bhanja Kala Mandap and Rabindra Mandap in the City Sunday. While Debaprasad Nrutya Pratisthan organised the ‘3rd Gurukrupa Nrutya Samaroah’, a one-day solo Odissi dance festival, at Bhanja Kala Mandap, Pandit Chatur Lal Memorial Society and Bhubaneswar Music Circle jointly organized Smrutiyaan, a musical evening to commemorate tabla maestro Pandit Chatur Lal at Rabindra Mandap. At the dance festival, 10 dancers — Pranati Kuldeep, Trupti Smita Tarini, G Nageswari, Mani Karnika, Jasaswani Swain, Samikhya pani, Aparupa patnaik, Monaj Kumar Pradhan, Prativa Jena singh and Pompi Paul — from
different parts of the country gave solo recitals. Some of the artistes were up and coming professionals. Pompi Paul, from North Bengal, presented two Odissi recitals —
one a sringar pallavi and the other abhinaya. Pompi’s Sringar Pallavi was set to raag Anand Bhairabi at Ektaal and was choreographed by her
guru Paushali Mukherjee. Abhinaya was a dance drama based on ‘Gita Govinda’ choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Prativa Jena Singh, from Delhi, in turn presented ‘Shakti Rupa Yagini’ a piece portraying devotion to Goddess Durga. The presentation set to raag ragamalika on tala malika was choreographed by Guru Surendra Nath Jena. “With the rise of group performances, there has been lack of interest in solo performances. Solo dancers, who struggle to preserve the dance form, get few platforms to showcase their talent. We came up with the festival to encourage solo recitals,” Gaytri Chand, a disciple of Guru Debaprasad and founder-cum-executive trustee of the dance academy, said. The academy also honoured Odissi exponents Gopikrushna Behera and
Bidushee Bijayalaxmi Mohanty at the event. At Smrutiyaan, meanwhile, Pandit Chatur Lal’s grandson Pranshu, who is also a tabla exponent, Satvik Veena player Pandit Salil Bhatt and Kathak dancer Pandit Deepak Maharaj performed. In the opening performance, Pranshu and Salil presented a duet in Raag Gawati set to a 16 beat Rhythm Cycle which mesmerised the audience. Salil also performed some of his father’s, grammy award winner Vishwa Mohan Bhatt’s, compositions at the event. Pranshu, who started performing at the age of seven, has presented concerts in more than 300 venues around the world and has performed alongside musicians such as Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and Deepak Maharaj.
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