Step by step

Odissi dancer Gayatri Chand talks about organising the first edition of Guru Kripa Nrutya Samaroha in Bhubaneswar and what she endeavours to achieve through her dance school

March 19, 2015 04:24 pm | Updated 04:24 pm IST - New Delhi

Gayatri Chand

Gayatri Chand

Gayatri Chand is a highly accomplished Odissi dancer and one of the senior-most disciples of Guru Debaprasad Das, committed to uphold, preserve, popularise and propagate her Guru’s style and teaching through her charitable institution Debaprasad Nrutya Pratisthan in Bhubaneswar, constituted in the fond memory of her Guru. As the founder-cum-executive trustee of the Pratisthan, Gayatri organised the first one-day dance festival Guru Krupa Nrutya Samaroha at Jayadeva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar recently, offering a platform to young established, upcoming and budding Odissi dancer (even a hearing impaired one) trained in the styles of the Odissi Trinity -- Gurus Debaprasad, Pankajcharan Das and Kelucharan Mohapatra. A recipient of numerous awards, the technically sound dancer has authored the first ever book on Guru Debaprasad Das and his work. Gayatri’s forte is abhinaya and so it was not surprising that the scholarly dancer had a foray in films for which she received the best actress award. On this occasion, as the director of the festival and a devout disciple, Gayatri -- also a Law graduate from Utkal University -- shares her endeavour and aspirations to keep alive her Guru’s tradition.

Excerpts from an interview:

Why did you think of organising the festival?

The purpose of this festival is to project my Guru’s ideology, knowledge and thoughts through performances by giving an opportunity and platform to talented and not-so-renowned dancers of Odissi, irrespective of the Gurus under whom they have been trained (in order to show respect to other stalwarts who were traditionalists as well). Guru Debaprasad was a traditionalist and an extremely learned and knowledgeable person with a natural and lively style that was convincing. So we decided to promote solos as it would be more appealing for the art. We had also organised a seminar on Odissi to discuss Guru Debaprasad’s work.

How did you organise funds for the festival?

For any festival, funds are indispensable. But since this is the first one, I did not approach the Government as it was important to see the overall response and establish our credibility and success before expecting any such institutional support. We had obtained some financial support from the public sector, banks besides a lot of well-wishers since it is a trust but that was not adequate. The trustees also needed to spend from their pockets. We would definitely continue with the festival but at this point it is difficult to commit whether it would be a yearly event or not. We have tried our best to promote dedicated, quality artists as quality only matters.

A few words on your Guru.

He was an extremely learned, knowledgeable, a purist and perfectionist in all spheres. Whether it was angashuddhi or grammar, it had to be authentic and the movements fully justified .Though he was very strict, he was equally lovable and would mix well with his students and one would enjoy his lessons. When I began learning the ABC of dancing, I had no idea what dance styles were. By watching my cousin Sangeeta Dash learn, I picked up and began liking Guruji’s style of dancing . His abhinaya had always been very natural and touched me.

Tell us about Nrutya Pratisthan.

The aim and objectives of Nritya Pratisthan is to teach the Debaprasad style of Odissi, his thoughts and movements. I stress on perfection. The students are trained in such a way that they can teach you an item tomorrow. We had been working since 2010 but the institution was officially registered this past February. It is not at all an usual school opened to earn money. There is no specific age of joining. Whoever is interested to learn can join. I also teach for free. The biggest difference of our institution from other institutions is that money is not a factor and I don’t commit to offer programmes or promote anybody. That’s why many students, to whom quality of teaching is secondary, go away to schools where such opportunities can be obtained. It is not at all a shop here, nothing for sale. As a dancer, I too face a lot of difficulties to grow.

What difficulties?

I believe in solo dancing because it is in solos that the art and the artist is created and the style lives on. Nowadays, the patronage for solos is less. Everyone has opened a school, the number of dancers have increased and group programmes are preferred for commercial gain. In that way, every student can also be given an opportunity in programmes. As a senior solo dancer at my level, I feel I didn’t get as much support as I deserve from the Government institutions because I feel we belonged to a time where our Gurus have given importance to teaching, sadhana and total involvement in the art to enjoy it . Many juniors have moved ahead.

We have never thought of marketing ourselves for performances and neither had we seen our Guru doing it. I have no trait of marketing, but the time has become competitive, contacts and networking is also required and we cannot blame anyone. But I have none.

So you went to films...

Though I used to love dance I never got any support from this field. So I thought why not use my talent in films. I did a few good films with good directors and enjoyed my work there.

I have acted in four Odiya feature films and one Bengali film which was the remake of a Odiya film. I got the best actress award for the feature film "Agni Sanket" from the Government of Odisha.

I have also acted in two telefilms. One was directed by Sampad Mahapatra and his eldest brother, late Nirod Mahapatra, was also fully involved in that, and the other was with Pranab Das. Since few of my relatives were in the film line I got the offer.

Now, I am more involved and focussed on dance only and am matured enough to express myself properly through dance.

Through classical dance one can connect spiritually. This is what attracts me the most to it. Though I love films, I am not very keen to do films. I rather be in dance. Completion of a film takes a lot of time which is also an obstacle for doing sadhana in dance.

Did you dance in films?

I had never done any classical dance in films, rather I had done a little bit of some commercial dance but my roles were mainly based on acting.

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