The sculptures in the Natya Mandap (literally means ‘Dance Hall’) of the Sun Temple at Konarak, the walls of the Jagannath Temple at Puri and the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves near Bhubaneswar depict various Odissi dance postures vividly. Another similarity it shares with Bharata Natyam is that this dance style was also performed by female temple dancers known as Maharis (the Orissa equivalent of South Indian Devadasis).
Its earliest known form Odhra Magadhi Nrutya has been mentioned in the Natya Shastra.
It originated in the state of Orissa (now Odisha) which lies on the east coast above Andhra Pradesh and below West Bengal. Hence, its Mudras are similar to those found in Bharata Natyam. This year, the award will be presented to B Bhanumathi.The classical dance style of Odissi is based on Natya Shastra like Bharata Natyam. I also have plans to have a theme for all the dance forms for a day,” he says. A revered dance guru will be awarded with the Indira Gariyali award on day one. “Every year, I will present some thing new. “I will leave it to the audience to wonder if Krishna was successful in convincing her or not.”įrom the forth coming year, Prabal will organise morning lecture demonstrations on lesser-known art forms along with the art of make up for Kathakali. The other will be on Krishna who tries to cajole one of his gopikas who is upset with him.” The sequence will have an open ending. I will perform a piece on a man waiting in a park for his girlfriend. It was challenging to find songs with different shades of a man’s emotions and find the right ambient music suiting the song. Praveen says, “Unlike the usual Bharatnatyam pieces which focusses on the heroines, my piece will be about heroes. The padam begins at this juncture when Nakhratundi transforms herself into a beautiful damsel, Lalitha, and looks with her lustful eyes at Jayanthan’s seductive V-shaped attractive body and his masculine shoulders.”Īnother artiste Praveen Kumar will present a Bharatnatyam piece. She captures the damsels from heaven but while returning, she happens to see Jayanthan, the most seductive handsome son of Indra and falls in love. He sends his servant Nakhratundi to do so. It is about Narakasura who wanted to capture heaven. It is a 16 matras padinya chitta ( technical) padam. My next piece will be Lalitha from Narakasura vadham. Thodayam is a pure dance number of Kathakali and is an invocatory piece invoking Lord Ganesha, Krishna, Lord Shiva, goddess Mookambika for successful completion of the dance performance. Prabal says, “I will open with a poorva rangam called Thodayam written by the Raja of Kottayam about 250 years ago. The dance festival will commence with his performance. As a practitioner of Indian classical dance form, I believe that minimum of an hour must be given to an artiste to do proper justice to any art form.” Every artiste will be given 1 hour and 15 minutes to perform. Prabal says, “All forms of Indian classical dances be it Manipuri, Sattriya, Kuchipudi, Kathakali and Mohiniyattam will be showcased with deep respect along with other well-known classical dance forms such as Bharatnatyam, Odissi and Kathak. It aims to educate people about the rich cultural heritage and various art forms of India. The festival is being held in the memory of Indira Gariyali, mother of Dr C K Gariyali, founder and advisor of Saraswati Educational Trust. So when Dr C K Gariyali ji (retired IAS officer, who has also authored a book Kashmir to Kanyakumari) told me about organising one, I decided to do it.” However, getting sponsorship was a problem. Prabal Gupta, a Kathakali artiste says, “I always wanted to organise a dance festival as it was my dream. This is the first year of the dance festival, which will feature all Indian classical dance forms. BENGALURU: A two-day dance festival Navvarsh Mahotsav kicks off in the city coming New Year.