ANANYA DANCE FESTIVAL AT PURANA QILA
Ananya is an annual dance festival held at the Old Fort in
the capital every year. It is organised by the department of Art, Culture and
Languages, Government of Delhi, and Seher. It is a commendable effort to bring
different Indian classical dance forms to the audience in Delhi.
Purana Quila is an amazing site for a cultural evening. The
weather is pleasant, the lawns are lush green, with nature at its best. A
hundred diyas flicker at the entrance to the venue. The lighting of the arches
of the fort is done in such a beautiful manner that the play of light and
shadow takes your breath away. It is a dialogue between the dance and the
heritage monument, a link between earthly and divine.
On 1st October, 2011, Aruna Mohanty and the
Orissa Dance Academy (Bhubaneshwar) presented Odissi dance. Aruna is a senior
disciple of Guru Gangadhar Pradhan. She has also received training from Guru
Kelucharan Mohapatra. An accomplished soloist, she has a fine grasp of dance
technique, and maturity in abhinaya.
The performance was called ‘Gatha Odissi’. It traced the
various forms of Odissi and their evolution into their present form .Very
befitting that the heritage of a dance be revisited at a heritage site
The Odissi dance was originally performed at the Jagannath temple
by the devdasis. This form of dance is called Mahiri. The dancers performed a
Vandana of Lord Jagannath called the Manglacharan in the Gotipua form. The
dance was done by the boys dressed as girls and the actions involved
acrobatics. It was as if the sculptures of dancers on the walls of various
temples of Orissa had come alive. The best part of this piece was the
acrobatics and handstands done by little girls. They made various formations.
The next form of Odissi is the Sakhinatak or Abhinaya, which
was performed to the compositions of Jaidev and other poets. The dancers
performed the four stages of Krishna’s life – the child Krishna, the adolescent
Krishna who did raas with the gopis, Goverdhandhari Krishna who saved Vraj from
the anger of Indra, and lastly the saddened Krishna who is separated from his
beloved Radha.
Lastly, the form of dance that was visited was Nritya nataka,
which invokes the various rasas. Instances were depicted from the life of Lord
Rama, Shringar rasa from the playfulness of Lord Ram and Sita, Hasya Rasa from
the episode of nose-cutting of Surpanakha, Raudra rasa from the Sitaharan and
finally, Shanta rasa that Rama embodies.
The entire performance was excellently choreographed and
performed. The three bhangimas of the dance, the movements of the torso, palms
and feet was beautifully executed. All the dancers showed a lot of poise and
grace and the performance culminated in a mesmerising experience.
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