Udayraga festival expands to include other dance forms, performers from across world
The festival has been extended to March 2021 instead of the earlier December 2020.
BHUBANESWAR: On popular demand, Udayraga, the online Odissi dance festival, will include other Indian classical dance forms, and contemporary dance and martial art, from Friday.
Dancers from across the world will participate and videos of their performances will be uploaded on organiser Orissa Dance Academy’s Facebook page and YouTube channel twice a week — Tuesday and Friday — at 8 pm instead of only Fridays.
While four days of the month will be devoted to solo performances by Odissi dancers, the remaining days will see performances by exponents of other forms.
The festival has been extended to March 2021 instead of the earlier December 2020.
Dancers will showcase Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Manipuri, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam, Sattriya and contemporary and martial art forms. Artists will be drawn from countries like the US, Japan, Bangladesh and those in Europe, along with different parts of India.
The new format was designed after the Indo-American Association, Houston, an organisation that promotes performing artists, approached danseuse Aruna Mohanty to promote other artists through Udayraga. “That’s when I drew upon my database of dancers and consulted senior dancers and organisations to select young and vibrant dancers and present them to the world in the digital mode,” said Aruna.
Dancer connoisseurs will be able to watch Odissi dancers Lipsa Satapathy, Sonali Mishra, Sridutta Bhol and Shibani Patnaik (US) on August 7, August 14, August 21 and August 28 respectively. Bharatnatyam danseuse Smrithi Krishnamoorthy (Chennai), Kathak dancer Rupanshi Kashyap (Ahmedabad) and Manipuri exponent Sudeshna Swayamprabha (Dhaka) will perform on August 11, August 18 and August 25, respectively.
The Delhi-based Lipsa (40) has already recorded her video on the premises of the Jagannath Temple, Tyagaraja Nagar, New Delhi. “It was just the videographer and I, so the temple authorities allowed us inside,” said Lipsa. She will be dancing on ‘Asthanayika’, a composition by Guru Gangadhar Pradhan.
Smrithi (25), a chartered accountant, will be presenting two solo performances — ‘Ganesha Pancharatnam’, a tribute to Lord Ganesha, the lyrics of which have been written by Adi Shankaracharya, and saint Soordas’s bhajans that talk of Lord Krishna trying to pacify mother Yashoda after stealing butter.
“Although the energy of a dancer comes from her audience, it is great feeling that people will be viewing my performance from their homes across the world,” said Smrithi, who started learning Bharatnatyam at the age of four.