Bhubaneswar: The 12th Annual Function & Prativa Samman festival organised by Bhubaneswar based Odissi dance institution Nrutya Mandira was recently held at GKCM Odissi Research Center.
Guru Laxmikanta Palit, Jayanta Kumar Das, Dr Sarat Kumar Kantha, Guru Shreerupa Ghose and Manamohan Pattanayak inaugurated the festival by lighting the ceremonial lamp. Next segment was felicitation ceremony. On this occasion, Padma Shri Minati Mishra Prativa Samman, Guru Ghanashyam Panda Prativa Samman, Dr Bidyut Kumari Chowdhury Prativa Samman and Gobinda Chandra Smruti Samman were conferred upon Guru Bimbadhar Das, Guru Tapas Das, Dr Chandana Roul and Sarat Kumar Nayak respectively.
The cultural evening witnessed some scintillating performances. The inaugural item was ‘Nari’, presented by 16 senior dancers of Nrutya Mandir, an Odissi dance institution established by Guru Debaprasad Das.
The dancers were Rupanwita Satpathy, Snehashree Das, Biswasmita Mishra, Sweety Mishra, Phalguni Pattanayak, Shradhaswini Priyadarshini, Aiswarika Tripathy, Ipsita Pani, Swastika Samantaray, Bijaylaxmi Sahoo, Aurosika Maharana, Yuthika Singh, Ved Parkash Das, Jyoti Ranjan Mati, Pujarchan Swain and Adarsh Kumar Sahoo. The item was choreographed by Guru Debaprasad Das and music composed by Purna Chandra Swain and Rupak Parida. The dancers were excellent in stage management and synchronisation.
The second item was a Mangalacharan ‘Guru Brahma’ presented by eight dancers (Abha Abhipsa), Prachi Subash Das, Aparna Barik, Tamanna Pattanayak, Priyanka Priyadarshini Swain, Tanishka Mohapatra, Adyasha Muduli and Gangashree Das).
The third item of the evening was a solo Odissi recital presented by Dr Chandana Roul from New Delhi. She presented ‘Durga’, one of the finest compositions of legendary Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.
The following items were Srita Kamala (Odissi dance), Jhuli Jhuli Asuchhi (Folk dance), Rageshree Pallavi (Odissi dance), Nagendra Haraya (Odissi dance), Jhip Jhip (Folk dance), Chira Charchita (Odissi dance), Sambalpuri folk dances by male and female dancers of the institution.
