One of the most celebrated disciples of late Guru Deba Prasad Das, Guru Durga Charan Ranbir’s choreographic creations — Soma Mangalam and Jagannatha Gopinatha — were performed by his disciples at the recently concluded Konark festival. Committed to popularising his guru’s style of Odissi dance through Nrutyayan, a dance institution set up by him in 1987, the veteran artiste has produced disciples like Sangeeta Dash, Rajashree Chintak Behera, Ranjita Mallik, Sonali Mohapatra, Gayatri Ranbir, Leena Mohanty, Bharat Charan Giri, Rahul Acharya, Debashish Pattanik, Dipti Routray who have received accolades like Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Bismillah Khan Award. He takes a few questions on his guru, his style and some major choreographies.
Looking back at your childhood, how much of a struggle it was to take up dance?
I don’t come from a family of artistes. Belonging to a Kshatriya zamindar family from Kamaguru, Khurda, we were warriors, hence my surname. Even though my family liked dance and music in the traditional setting, they didn’t encourage it as a practice. More so, being a man in a patriarchal family system, those days, I literally had to run away from home to pursue my passion.
Did you start by learning Gotipua?
After completing my schooling, I ran away from home to take admission at the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya to continue my college studies.
Here I was trained by Guru Pankaj Charan Das and Guru Deba Prasad Das. I was also being specially trained by Deba Sir, so my initial training was in Odissi.
During my school days, since I always showed a keen interest in dance and was avidly performing in dance dramas in my own style, I was sent to Rameshwar (another village near my native place) to acquire some skills. There I came in contact with quite a few Gotipua gurus but was never trained formally in Gotipua.
How long have you learnt under Guru Pankaj Charan Das and Guru Deba Prasad Das?
I joined the Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in 1970. There I got trained under both Pankaj Sir and Deba Sir. I was also receiving my private training from Deba Sir. Pankaj sir trained me until I finished my studies.
I was associated with Deba Sir till he passed away. Being a part of Odissi’s reconstruction, I have spent a lifetime in dance.
A few practitioners of Deba Prasad Das style of dance have a lot of folk influence in their style? Did Guru Deba Prasad Das actively advocate this trend? If so, then how is it you don’t have any folk elements in your dance?
Deba Sir always wanted to give Odissi a very typical Oriya flavour. For this he travelled to the interiors of Odisha and discovered several traditional dances, being practised as temple rituals. One vivid example is the sabda swara patha from Kumbhari village. He revived them and after comparing them with Nritya Shastras, imbibed them into his dance.
The practitioners of Deba Prasad style need to be careful in adding their own research to Deba sir’s work. I too, following in his footsteps, brought in his research into my dance but with my own inputs coming from my research.
Do you strictly adhere to the Guru Deba Prasad style of dance or has your style evolved to include more subtle expressions?
Keeping in view Deba Sir’s vision of Odissi, I have evolved a style of my own with my own analysis of dance. I don’t tamper with his choreographies but when I am creating my own works, I follow his vision but bring in my own inputs.
What has been the exact contribution of Deba Prasad Das to Odissi dance? What is the main difference between the styles of Guru Deba Prasad Das and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra? Deba Sir gave Odissi a very typical Oriya flavour. He brought in very traditional social practices of the Oriyas of those times and imbibed it into his style.
He was the first guru who was responsible for getting Odissi noticed outside the State when he accompanied Priyambada Mohanty Hejmadi for the Inter-university Youth Festival.
He was also the first guru to go global, when he accompanied Indrani Rahman as her guru. It was because of Deba Sir that Odissi became known worldwide.
Deba sir’s vision of Odissi was targeting major choreographies which had quite a lot of tandava as well as tantric elements. His inclusion of sabda swara patha is considered indispensable. In abhinaya, he laid extra stress on the sthayee bhava and traditional mudras. He was quite discrete with extra embellishments during abhinaya renditions.
Which of your choreographic works have you enjoyed working on the most?
All of my works have been well-received. Some of my major choreographies are “Aditya Archana”, “Nava Graha”, “Ramayana”, “Sapta Matrika”, “Abhisapta Konarka”, “Sthayee” and many more from the traditional repertoire. I have enjoyed working on all my pieces because there is a lot of research work and I get various inputs from my core team of disciples.
What ‘lakshan’ do you look for in a student that will make him/her a dancer par excellence?
The foremost qualities in an able disciple are humility and passion. Forbearance comes next. What is ideal is a complete surrender to the guru and dedication to the form. I always encourage my disciples to strive for a level of commitment to the extent that dance becomes a way of life for them.
