The recently concluded Pravaha Dance Festival, at ADA Rangamandira in Bengaluru, was conceptualised by Odissi dancer Sharmila Mukherjee. The festival is organised every year in memory of the late Kelucharan Mohapatra (popular as Kelu Babu). Sharmila talks to MetroPlus about the festival, her guru and his impeccable signature style of movement.
Sharmila shifted base to Bengaluru from Kolkata in 2004 and organising Remembering Guruji, a small festival with Odissi dancers from Bengaluru, as a tribute to Kelu Babu. “The next year, I collaborated with his son, Ratikant Mohapatra, and organised a festival called Smaranam. Later we started the Pravaha (which means ‘a flow’) Dance festival,” says Sharmila, who adds that the idea of having a festival was to keep guruji’s memory alive and to show the world that his legacy has been passed on.
“He had a unique style, and I do not deviate from it. He put emphasis on technique. His style of Odissi is all about controlled torso movement and not the movement of hips or shoulders that we usually see in Odissi performances,” says the dancer, who also started the started the Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance in Bengaluru.
Students of Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance at the Pravaha Festival | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Sharmila trained under Kelu Babu for over 20 years. In the past Pravaha has featured dancers such as Ratikanth Mohapatra, his wife, Sujata Mohapatra, and Arushi Mudgal. “I realised that guruji loved all art forms including Roman architecture, Italian films, American contemporary dance and Russian ballet. So, from 2019 we decided to include other dance forms in the festival, such as Bharatanatyam, Chau and so on and it became a bigger festival.”
This year, Sharmila says she featured her new choreographies, which was also presented in Konarak earlier. The piece she presented was her solo dance choreography, Maneka. Bharatanatyam artistes, Parshwanath S Upadhye, Shruti Gopal and Adithya PV also participated in the festival.
“Dances choreographed by Kelu Babu are part of the festival every year. This year we wanted to present some new choreographies as guruji always encouraged us to explore our own choreographies too. ”
