A tribute to a maestro

The dance-lovers of the City were in for a treat as the Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance presented ‘In Memory Of Guruji’, a tribute to the late dance exponent Padma Vibhushan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.

Held at the Seva Sadan, Malleswaram, the evening featured dances by the guru’s daughter-in-law Sujata Mohapatra and his disciples, Sharmila Mukherjee and Devjani Sen. As it was the dance maestro’s eighth death anniversary, these three graceful dancers, looking beautiful in their traditional colourful costumes, paid a tribute to their guru by performing some of his choreographed pieces. 

The tribute, popularly called as sansmaran in Odissi dance, started off with a namami, which was a Ganesh vandana. Post this graceful performance, it was time for a solo act by Sharmila Mukherjee. She presented a Khamaj Pallavi, which is a pure dance or a nrit. As the title of the dance suggested, the danseuse performed to Raag Khamaj and enthralled one and all with her energetic dance.

A solo performance by the guest artiste of the evening, Sujata Mohapatra, followed soon. The gathering in the auditorium was highly excited to see Sujata, who had conducted a workshop earlier, presenting a solo dance.

She performed Ardhanareeshwara and followed it up with Kedo Chando, a beautiful dance about Lord Krishna’s mischievousness. The dance, which focussed on the pranks of baby Krishna, left everyone with a huge smile on their face.

Paying a tribute to the beautiful monsoon that has set sight in the City, Sujata performed Varsha, which was about the rain as the name suggested. It was a piece apt for the season as the winds rocked the City the same evening. While all the other pieces had been choreographed by Kelucharan Mohapatra, Varsha was put together by Kelucharan’s son and Sujata’s husband Ratikant Mohapatra.

For the final performance of the evening, the three beautiful dancers came together once again to present Moksha or salvation. With that, the evening came to a close.

As the hall was packed with people, the dancers expressed their delight at the way the show had turned out. “A lot of hard work was put into this show and we also went through a workshop for four to five days,” explained Devjani, one of the dancers. “However, most people anted to see Sujata perform. That’s why we moved out in between and llowed her to perform solo,” she added.