Bhubaneswar: A Bhubaneswar based Odissi dance institution, Art Vision organised it’s 19th edition of ‘Sangam’, a confluence of dances, at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar on October 7.
The evening started with the auspicious lighting the lamp ceremony, attended by police commissioner Soumendra Priyadarshi and director of Odia Language, Literature and Culture department Dilip Routray as esteemed guests.
The inaugural item of the evening was ‘Make Room for Elephants’, presented by five younger students of Art Vision Shravani Das, Manyata Rath, Tanisha Acharya, Alaka Pradhan and Ruchika Rupanita. Choreographed by Padma Shri recipient Dr Ileana Citaristi, founder of Art Vision, and music composed by Annada Prasanna Pattanaik, the item instilled sympathy for the animal world. For this item, Ileana took inspiration from a short poem with the same title penned by Ruskin Bond.
The following item was ‘Sarira’, lyrics by Janardan Dasa and Devdas Chhotray, music composed by Sangita Panda, rhythm composed by Satchidananda Das and conceptualised and choreographed by Ileana Citaristi.
Divided into two parts, the choreography while shows how beautiful a devadasi feels when she adorns herself with all sorts of ornaments, attire and dress, at the same time it narrates the ordeal experienced by two women who were paraded naked in Manipur in July this year.
Citaristi says ‘Sarira’ is her reaction and tribute to them.
The dancers ticked all boxes of a beautiful presentation, leaving the art connoisseurs glued to their seats. They were Upasana Mohanty, Dibyadarshini Supakar, Kalyani Mohapatra, Anwesha Padhi, Rosalin Sahu, Swetapadma Paltasingh and Utkalini Mallik.
The concluding item of the evening was a scintillating Mohiniyattam presentation by renowned Mohiniyattam dancer Guru Smt Gopika Verma and her nine disciples-Sindhu Venugopal, Manjula Krishna Kumar, Amrutha Mangalassery, Keerthi Menon, Nikhita S, Kavya S, Akshita Gopakumar, Sattabdi Kanungo and Debasmita Barik.
They presented ‘Kandein Dream’ (I saw a dream), concept and choreography by Guru Verma and music by Kalamandalam Vishnu. The production illustrates dream through four different narratives.
Besides excellent facial expressions and body movements of the dancers, what needs special mention is their beautiful synchronisation and space management. It was a visual treat for both trained and untrained eyes.
Lalatendu Panigrahi’s sensible light design added colour to the evening. Dr Sangeeta Gosain was the emcee of the evening.
