Samakala' enthralls audience

The contemporary dance festival “Samakala” opened here with colour and grandeur today.

Three day long festival has been organized on behalf of Department of Tourism & Culture, Government of Odisha, Odisha Sangeet Natak Academy organised

Being organised for the first time this festival awakened curosity and excitement among the art connoisseurs of the city who thronged to see something of different taste both in terms of dance as well as presentation.

The first presentation of the evening was Hansha Balaka, skillfully displaying the various gaits and movements of Swain followed by acrobatic gestures entiledStreet Dance Ragavali depicting the nationalist element through the colourful display of Indian national flag with Ashoka Chakra choreographed by his illustrious father Narendra Sharma sensitized the patriotic spirit of the audiences.

It was punctuated with movement with imagined charecterstics of each colour and the centrality of chakra in the flag’s formulation.

Prafulla Samal, Minister, Tourism & Culture inaugurated the festival, which was graced by Shrimati Mandoi Singh, Vice Chancellor, Khairagada University,  Prof. Amiya Pattnaik, Vice Chancellor, Utkal University of Culture, Smt. Jhelam Paranjape, Renowned Odissi Dancer.

The Prime Mover of the festival of contemporary dance, Ashok Kumar Tripathy, Principal Secrertary, Tourism & Culture, Susil Kumar Das, Director, Culture, President, Sarat Pujari, President, OSNA, Aruna Mohanty, Vice President, OSNA and Chitta Ranjan Mallia, Secretary, OSNA were also present.

Jatakmala i.e. tales of Buddhist expound on wisdom and vagaries of life through a series of naratives. 

These tales emanated issues of times i.e. ecology, human releations, wisdom stories and historical record of its time. 

Choreographed by Bharat Sharma this episode depicts images of animal world, power, conflicts, enviornment, relationship, dreams and abstract concepts using props, colour schema and different designs through gestures and movements.

The second item of the evening was by Ananda Shankar Jayant a noted danseuse and choreographer who chose to present with five interesting episodes from the popular compedium “Panchatantra” using the grammer and idiom of classical dance. 

She effortlessly bridges traditional strcutures with contemporary inputs. 

Her group performance on Panchatantra sends message of friendship, bravery, leadership  and freedom through parable and allegory of popular tales of Panchatantra showcasing the stories of monkey and crocodile, lion and rabit, swain and tortoise, monkey. 

Laced with humour and satire, elegantly blend of tradition with contemporary and beautifully combined with a rich movement of vocabulary and grammer the production of Padamshree Dr. Jayant took the audience to a different world of kaleiodoscopic designs of colour rhythm and imagery. 

Both Bharat Sharma and Dr. Ananda Shankar enthralled the art lovers of the city by their superb choreographic presentation of music, dance and rhythm synchronized with proper costumes, props and light effects.