‘Anuttama’, an inspiration for girls to observe their dream
‘You dance love, and also you dance pleasure, and also you dance goals’ – Gene Kelly
Myself and my 5 pals demonstrated this after we got here collectively to carry out our Manchpravesh lately at Mumbai’s St. Andrew’s auditorium. In Odissi dance custom, a Manchpravesh, is akin to a commencement ceremony.
Titled ‘Anuttama’ (means unsurpassed), this Manchpravesh was distinctive. It’s often carried out early in life, after studying a full repertoire and in search of the guru’s blessings for the primary formal public look. However we made our debut previous out prime. Aside from most of us being moms to teenage kids and younger adults, we’ve got a full-time skilled profession. Regardless of our numerous backgrounds, what Arpita Sur (preschool CEO), Mangal Walkar, Pradnya Sinha, Sangeeta Jadhav, Urvashi Makharia and myself have in frequent is our love for dance. We additionally belong to the identical Odissi institute, Smitalay in Mumbai and have been educated by Jhelum Paranjape and Ankur Ballal.
We devised varied methods to apply. We’d submit our day by day apply routine on our WhatsApp group to encourage one another. Mangal, a healthcare technician at a number one hospital, felt though she was a backbencher, our gurus helped shed her inhibitions. Sangeeta was overwhelmed by the fantastic thing about dance. Pradnya, director of a artistic firm, credit dada and tai (our gurus) for uplifting us to make this dream come true. Urvashi agrees.
‘Anuttama’ started with Mangalacharan, the sloka ‘Padavande’, in reward of Ganesha. It moved to a pallavi in raag Saveri, which was excessive on sringara rasa. This was adopted by Brajaku, a Gitabhinaya written in Odia, depicting a playful interplay between Yashoda and child Krishna. The efficiency moved once more to pure dance, earlier than we introduced ‘Batu Nritya’, an essential a part of the Odissi repetoire. The piece, choreographed by the inimitable Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, was recreated by Ankur Ballal in a singular means. Simply as a sculptor turns stones into stunning statues, a guru shapes the disciples into sleek dancers. Ankur Ballal, enacting the sculptor, turned us, the six dancers, mendacity as stone chunks into statues enjoying varied devices within the Konark temple.
After tandava and abhinaya items, we showcased two distinctive pallavis by guru Jhelum Paranjape. The occasion concluded with ‘Moksha’ highlighting the liberation of the soul. Motion and stillness outlined this piece. Musicians, Jateen Kumar Sahu, Rohan Dahale, Aparna Deodhar and Shree Niranjan Sinha heightened the enchantment. The aim of scripting this piece is to share with different girls that it’s by no means too late to dream and the timeless fantastic thing about our dance.
The author is CEO, NYACONS, a administration consulting startup.
