In the inaugural speech of his Aekalavya Festival, Odissi exponent Saswat Joshi’s guru-bhakti was on show. His Sanskrit teacher, Brundavan Salangi was felicitated and he proudly announced that as a student of Class VIII in Government Boys’ High School, his teacher had asked him to take on the role of Shakuntala in a Sanskrit drama. Saswat confessed that it was his first stage appearance. His guru-bhakti was displayed when he honoured his dance guru Ileana Citaristi to whom he is indebted for the guidance and training he has received. It takes a lot of mettle to reach a level that Saswat has managed at quite an early age.
In the eighth edition of the festival, which concluded recently in Bhubaneswar, Saswat started symbolically with “Madhurastakam”, which was written by Vallabha Acharya, a poet who lived in the court of Krishna Devaraya in 15th Century.
With each year, there have been new highlights and features. Sixteen dancers from the Lasyakala Institute of Performing Arts of Saswat performed at the Rabindra Bhavan stage, which had an ethnic village scene with a temple as the backdrop. The dance on the theme of Krishna bhakti delineated the lyric through the fluid sculpture like vocabulary of Odissi dance about Krishna’s physical and spiritual beauty. The tone of the evening was set.
Praises to Saraswathy, which Sreejata Upadhyaya sang melodiously, formally declared open the festival.
Some of the highlights of the evening included the rendition of a Sabdapatachitra Pallavi by Upasana Mohanty, a choreographic work of Ileana Citaristi. It was a treat to see this nimble-footed young dancer with perfect syntax and style of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra perform.
Ananya Mihir, disciple of Saswat, attempted a challenging piece of dance and did reasonably well. She presented the poetic elaboration of Kalidasa’s “Meghdootam” where the exiled and love-lorn Yaksha sends the cloud as messenger to his beloved in Alakapuri, giving him – the cloud is personified – the direction to the place as well as the sights that would meet his eyes. Music for this work was by Hariharan. The abhinaya was realistic.
Kathak dancer Manisha Guliani of the Jaipur gharana, who received her training from Pandit Giridhari Maharaj, showed some of the gems of her guru’s creation and performed to a Bindadin thumri and abhinaya and mesmerised the audience with Kathak technicalities such as the tukra and todas.
Manisha danced swan-like with the sweeps that the Jaipur gharana is known for. She, along with Lopamudra Jena, were the recipients of the Aekalavya Awards.
Lopamudra Jena, disciple of guru Meera Das of Cuttack, danced on her guru’s choreographic piece from Madan Mohan Stotra, “Jaya Sankha Gadadhar Neela Kalebara” about Krishna, and showed the fine nuances of bhakti- shringar. She is an asset to her guru.
The love of Odissi brought Sandhya Manoj to visit Bhubaneswar again all the way from Malaysia. Though versed in other classical dance forms, it is Odissi which is her first love. Enamoured by the philosophy of Dasam Mahavidya, she learnt the piece which had been choreographed by Guru Debaprasad Das from Guru Durga Charan Ranbir and very boldly performed it. With her yoga background it was not difficult for her to master the piece. Dasam Mahavidya has the scope to show all the nine rasas, which she did with grace and élan.
