BHUBANESWAR: The two-day festival to mark the fifth Guru Debaprasad Das Award ceremony came to an end on Tuesday with scintillating performances by Odissi dancer Reela Hota, celebrated classical artiste Kala Krishna and a ballet by world renowned dancer Tanushree Shankar and her troupe. Andhranatyam by Kala Krishna took the evening to sublime level from Reela’s ‘Abhinaya’ show. Kala Krishna is one of the very few dancers in the tradition where males dance in woman’s garb. If one were not aware of the tradition and the dancer Kala Krishna, it would have been impossible for anyone to fathom that the dancer on stage was not a woman - that too a beautiful one. A line for the uninitiated, ‘Andhanatyam’ is a temple dance of Andhra Pradesh and part of the temple rituals. The dance form has a beauty of its own which comes with some of the earthiness, the ruggedness of the traditional folk forms. It is closer to Kuchipudi, which has also been part of Kala Krishna’s training. Kala Krishna began his performance with ‘pushpanjali’ in the style of temple rituals. This item was usually performed by Deva Nartakeeda or Devadasis in front of Gods. This is a pure dance number with stress on the rhythmic aspects and is based on ‘Indra Gadya’. This was followed by ‘Kaivaram’ in praise of Lord Madhava. The dancer followed it with ‘Nava Janardhana Parijatham’ in which he gave an insight into the feminine contradictions of Satyabhama, all melting love one moment for her beloved Lord Krishna and the next an avenging angel brandishing her plait as a whip to beat him with. The evening concluded with a ballet ‘Chirantan’ by Tanushree Shankar and her troupe of dancers that left the audience mesmerised. Earlier, during the inaugural ceremony on Monday, internationally acclaimed Odissi exponent Minati Mishra was bestowed the Guru Debaprasad Das Award for 2011. City-based organisation Tridhara organised the event.
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