Celebrating ancient dance forms

The city witnessed a conglomeration of ancient dance forms varying from Kathak, Bharatanatyam to Odissi yesterday at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall which opened the doors to the marvel and the ingenuity of art to the true devotees of these exquisite dance forms.So, in the true sense of art, Odissi, one of the seven classical dance forms of India, was nurtured in the famous shrines of Orissa from time immemorial.The evening was made special by the state of the art performances by Orissa dance academy, led by Aruna Mohanty who herself is considered to be one of the finest Odissi dancers in the country.To an ordinary week day, the performances from Gatha Odissi from which they danced to Khamaj Pallavi, followed by Rasa and Krupanidhana livened up the entire evening.Khamaj Pallavi is a pure dance with the movements of lyrical grace and it is based on a melody (raga) which is soft, lilting and melodious whereas Rasa is the aim of all art, evoking a mood which the artist communicates to the audience.There are nine moods or rasas in the dance, and each is conveyed through an episode from the Ramayana.the dance evokes the mood of serenity and peace — Shantam.The last dance they performed is Krupanidhana which is amongst the most important Odissi dances depicting the Jaganaath cult and Jaganaath consciousness - the very core of Oriya life and culture.This is an old traditional composition, “Nilachala Rasika Mani” in which festivals relating to Jaganaath such as Chandana (sandalwood paste festival), Jhulana (swing festival) and Ratha Yatra (car festival) are portrayed.Mesmerising as they are, Aruna Mohanty and her group of dancers truly personify Odissi art by preserving the dance form as it is.Talking to one of the dancers, Arupa Panda,”I am very fortunate to have a guru like Aruna Mohanty under whom I get to learn different kinds of Odissi dances and at the same time, help to preserve one of our traditional dance forms in its truest form in the time when most of our art and culture are being tainted with modernity.”