Aptly referred to as the ‘ adiguru ’ of Odissi, Guru Pankaj Charan Das was the guru of all the founder-fathers of Odissi dance – Kelucharan Mohapatra, Mayadhar Raut and Debaprasad Das – apart from most of the next generation of Odissi gurus who are internationally known today. And ironically, he had been the most unsung Odissi legend.
Against this backdrop, family members of the Guru – whose centenary celebrations are just a year away - took initiatives to launch annual dance festivals and awards in his memory in Puri and Bhubaneswar. Pankaj Charan’s grand-daughter Pallavi Das, a professional Odissi dancer, has been hosting the annual Adi Guru Pankaj Charan Das Award festival in Bhubaneswar.
The recently concluded fourth annual edition of the festival, staged at Rabindra Mandap over two days, witnessed some of the popular and unique choreographies of Guru Pankaj Charan. One such choreography was Angikam Bhuvanam that is rarely being seen. It was presented in a group dance by Pallavi and her co-dancers. Madhurastakam , a milestone of Odissi repertoire, was staged superbly by young soloist Manisha Manaswini.
And it was touching to witness Japanese Odissi dancer Eiko Shinihara perform Shankarabharam pallabi , another classic choreographic creation of the maestro. His two other pallabis (pure dance numbers) – Basant pallabi and Arabi pallabi – were staged by Manasi Maiti and Meher Chahal as solo numbers and by Niladri Mohanty-Sasmita Mohanty duo as duet respectively.
Nabadura , his most popular choreography among aspiring dancers, was presented in both solo and duet formats by Rajanandini Routray and Sanjib Kumar Jena-Rosy Swain respectively. Budding dancer Sefali Nayak excelled in presentation of Sthayee , another pure dance number. Among the avinaya (expressional dance) numbers, two young dancers – Anisha Singh from Cuttack and Bhargavee from Bengaluru, – made neat and impressive presentation of Radharani sangenache Muralipani . The other avinaya number Leelanidhi He – rarely seen in concerts – was performed by B K Debasmita.
Though the festival highlighted the choreography of Guru Pankaj Charan Das, it allowed dancers and choreographers to present their own choreographies through group presentations for he had introduced group choreography to Odissi . Among them were Odissi dancer-choreographers Meera Das, Lingaraj and Sanjukta Pradhan and Arpita Venkatesh who presented Navagraha .
Sujata Mohapatra’s disciple Soumya Bose performed Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s classic creation Ardhanariswara while young Pravat Swain’s choreographies were staged by his disciples Harekrushna Dhal and Purnata Mohanty.
The Adi Guru Pankaj Charan Das Lifetime Achievement Awards were conferred on Rabinarayan Panda (Odissi dance) and K Ramarao Patra (Odissi music).
