International Odissi Festival 2011: Daksha Mashruwala performs Yahi Madhava and Priye Charusheele
Director: Kelucharan Mohapatra
Duration: 00:21:15; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 20.818; Saturation: 0.412; Lightness: 0.142; Volume: 0.112
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.
Daksha Mashruwala trained in Bharatanatyam at Darpana, under the guidance of Mrinalini Sarabhai. She later took to Odissi, studying with Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Mashruwala is based in Bombay, where she is a senior teacher and choreographer in the dance style. She runs her own institute, Kaishiki, in the city.
Here, she performs two ashtapadis from the Gita Govinda. In yahi madhava, Radha waits for Krishna, who turns up at dawn, sporting marks of a night of love spent with another woman. He has an excuse to allay each of her doubts, but Radha is not fooled. In the second ashtapadi, priye charusheele, Radha is angry and upset; she has not taken Krishna's deception well. He must use all his charm to placate her. Place your lotus feet on my head, and forgive me, he implores Radha.
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