Odissi Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena, 75, passed away in his village Remuna near Balasore, Odisha. He had gone to perform in a festival but unfortunately after he put on the makeup, suddenly he felt uneasy and passed away on March 26th. Jena was trained by many gurus in Odissi including Guru Gayadhar, Ramaswami, Ramgopal Misra, Raghunath Dutta, Mayadhar Raut and Kelucharan Mahapatra at Kala Vikash Kendra in Cuttack where he obtained a Master’s degree in Odissi. He was trained as a dancer and used to give several solo performances in the early ‘60s.
It was Y.G Doraiswamy, an art connoisseur from Chennai, who saw his performance and suggested that he should move to Chennai to perform Odissi and teach there to local Bharatanatyam dancers, interested in learning Odissi, as the dance form was gaining popularity. Jena taught privately in Chennai and later on in 1977 he was engaged to teach Odissi at Kalakshetra where he taught for three years till 1980. During his stay in Chennai he also taught Kshama Rau, daughter of Gyanpith Awardee author Sivaram Karanth, who contributed a lot in reviving the Yakshagana dance form of Karnataka.
Jena also taught well known Bharatanatyam exponent Malavika Sarukkai. He used to perform duets with his students in Chennai and had performed duets with Malavika Sarukkai.
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After 1980 Jena moved to Cuttack and established Kamala Kala Pith to train local young dancers and also dancers who came from abroad to study Odissi. One American dancer Madhulika came to Cuttack and took intensive training in Odissi under Jena. He was very proud of her and Madhulika wanted to take him abroad on a tour of America and Canada.
He also taught at Odissi Research Centre at Bhubaneswar. Later on like other senior gurus, Mayadhar Raut and Harekrishna Behra, who had migrated to New Delhi, Jena also moved to New Delhi from Cuttack and taught Odissi at Triveni Kala Sangam. Later on he visited Japan and gave workshops at Osaka.
By temperament Jena was quiet and very modest. He had received sound training under celebrated masters. During his study at Kala Vikash Kendra he was in close touch with Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra. And followed his style. Ratikant, son of Kelubabu, recalls that when he was studying in 4th standard at Sagaddas Vidyapith School in Cuttack, Jena used to drop him at the school and pick him after the school hours . He also recalls that Jena was very polite and treated his father Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra with great respect.
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From among his three sons, Biswa, Annie and Rashmi, Rashmi Ranjan received thorough training under him and showed promise as an up and coming dancer. The other sons took to music.
Rashmi Ranjan currently teaches at Remuna village where Jena built a Gurukul. He also used to arrange annual dance festivals there.
Jena was invited to choreograph group dances for the students of various schools participating in the Republic Day parade. He also gave dance direction in many Odia films. He will be specially remembered for his contribution to Odissi when the dance form was gaining popularity.