Director: Kelucharan Mohapatra
Duration: 00:13:27; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 24.141; Saturation: 0.423; Lightness: 0.109; Volume: 0.103
Summary: The 4th International Odissi Dance Festival in 2011 was held from December 23 to 30, 2011, at Rabindra Mandap Bhubaneswar. The festival was preceded by an attempt to create a world record by having around 550 dancers perform together at Kalinga Stadium. It saw the participation of most major Odissi ensembles in Orissa and a few from outside the state. With performances for over twelve hours each day, the festival featured several hundred performers in solo, duet and group works over eight days. In its scale, the festival offered a bird's eye view of the landscape of contemporary Odissi and its ever-changing nature. It foregrounded new trends in choreography, music and costuming. The seminars during the festival sparked lively debates on issues and concerns in Odissi. One such concern, voiced repeatedly, questioned the definition of tradition within the space of the dance form and the limits it could be stretched to. This raised parallel questions about innovation and experimentation in Odissi - a debate that found itself mirrored in the performances during the festival.
Aloka Kanungo has been a dancer, actor and AIR artist since childhood. Initially trained by Guru Raghunatha Dutta and Guru Mayadhar Rout, she blossomed into a dancer under the tutelage and watchful eyes of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. She received “Nritya Shree”,”Nritya Visharad” and “Nritya Praveen” from Kala Vikash Kendra, Cuttack. She has received many prestigious awards , including the Shiromoni Puroshkar and the Mahari Award. She runs her own institution, Shinjan Nrityalaya, in Kolkata.
Here she performs the ka and kha champus, from the Oriya champu sarani, a collection of 34 poems where each line begins with the same consonant. It is said that the author of the Kishore Chandrananda champu sarani was in the employ of the King Balukesa, which is why many of the champus are dedicated to him and weave his name into the concluding stanza.
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