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A celebration of legacies – a festival of bhava, rasa, tala, laya – was recently hosted virtually by Sangeet Natak Akademi award recipient Srimati Aloka Kanungo and Eastern Zonal Cultural Center (EZCC), and powered by Kadambini, the popular Oriya magazine.
Parampara unfolded over twelve days like twelve gemstones, each day shining with the lustrous hues of established and promising Indian classical dancers from India and abroad. Guru Aloka Kanungo successfully visualized and conceptualized the festival with five days dedicated to the celebration of Odissi, and seven days of other classical dances such as Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Sattriya, Kathak, Mohiniyattam, Kathakali, and Gaudiya Nritya. Each episode was introduced by Baishali Bhuniya. The festival featured EZCC director Gouri Basu, diplomat and dancer Rajashree Chintak Behera, Media personality Sadhna Srivastav, and Dr. Sangita Gosain.
The first five days presented a very commendable range of artists of Odissi, from scholars, researchers, to dancers and choreographers from various parts of the globe such as Rohini Dandavate (USA), Supradipta Dutta (USA), Kaustavi Sarkar (USA), Niharika Mohanty (USA), Rajashree Chintak (China), Supriya Nayak (Canada), Maya Devalecheruvu (USA), Maya Lochana, Pompi Mukherjee. Interesting ideas and discussions came up in the Nritya Kovid chapter where senior dancers and researchers, namely Dr. Snehaprava Samantaray, Daksha Mashruwala, Dr. Rohini Dandavate, and Niharika Mohanty, presented their choreographic or research-based works through slides and video snippets.
Day one of Parampara started with Odissi on June 17th. There was a galaxy of promising dancers of Odissi from all over India who presented their craft quite gracefully. Rudraprasad Swain, Debashis Pattnaik, Arushi Mudgal, Panchanan Bhuniya, Paulami Chakraborty, Rudra Prasad Swain, and Saurav Samanta were among the Odissi dancers in the Parampara series who showed considerable promise.
The sixth day celebrated Kathak and presented dances by various promising Kathak dancers of the current time namely Indrayanee Mukherjee, Shinjini Kulkarni, Sandip Mallick, Souvik Chakraborty, Paramita Moitra, and Vishal Krishna. Souvik’s elegant presentation of dhamar, Indrayanee’s nuanced ashtapadi and crisp pancham sawari deserve mention. Srimati Uma Dogra’s scintillating choreographic essence was visible clearly in Indrayanee’s presentation. Shinjini was elegant as ever in her poise and dexterity with a dignified presentation of abhinaya. Finally, Sandip’s subtle but chiseled movements left the audience asking for more.
The seventh episode highlighted Bharatanatyam by dancers from India, and USA. The artists were Sharanya Chandran, Shweta Prachande, Anuradha Vikranth, Himanshu Srivastava, Samrat Dutta, Uttiya Barua, and Piyali Biswas. Technical precision in form and appropriate usage of bhava and rasa in the presentations of Shweta, Himanshu, Sharanya, and Anuradha was mindboggling. Piyali chose an unusual and challenging locale to show the mayura alarippu. Samrat’s dhumavati , and Himanshu’s kaalbhairav stood out for the sheer power of concept, choreography, and execution.
The eighth segment showcased Manipuri and Sattriya. S. Karuna Devi, Paushaly Chatterjee, Sinam Basu Singh, and Sudip Ghosh presented Manipuri, while Anwesha Mahanta, Naren Baruah, And Seujpriya Borothakur presented beautiful Sattriya dances.
On day nine, the audience witnessed Kuchipudi and Gaudiya Nritya. Srimayi Vempati, Minu Thakur, Prateeksha Kashi, Gururaju presented scintillating Kuchipudi, while Kaberi Putatunda and Ayan Mukherjee showcased traditional Gaudiya Nritya. Prateeksha kashi and Gururaju were breathtakingly sharp in their performances.
The tenth saw the two most prominent classical dance forms of Kerala – Kathakali and Mohiniyattam. Priyadarshini Ghosh, Mom Ganguly, Smitha Ranjan, Methil Devika presented Mohiniyattam with utmost precision and nuanced expressions, While Diptangshu Paul and Ramyani Roy brought out the elements of Kathakali nicely in their presentations. Methil Devika’s sarpatatwam took the rasika to an experience of mysticism and Priyadarshini’s lasya aspect was presented beautifully.
The pandemic has closed some doors but opened many windows into the world of art and culture. The entire event showed how the virtual windows can be used successfully to showcase the brilliance of classical art and rising artists of the various dance forms. Hope this enterprising festival reaches its goal of including more artists and audiences from around the world.
Hats off to Aloka Kanungo and EZCC for this great enterprising event. Looking forward to more such events in the future.
Nandini Mandal is a Bharatanatyam dancer, teacher, choreographer, Founder & Artistic Director of Nandanik Dance Academy in Pittsburgh, PA. She is the host of the Facebook talkshow, Shetubondhon, and a social activist, cancer survivor, and freelance writer.