Day Two Odissi

Today, we had Guru Mayadhar Raut, who is in his 80's, give us a lecture demonstration with the help of his daughter Madhumita. It was another trip down memory lane as Guruji, or Anna as I used to call him, studied at Kalakshetra when I was a young student there. He has an excellent memory of those days and was especially thrilled to see Balagopal, because he has narrated an incident involving Balagopal in his biography: One day Mylapore Gowri Ammal was drowsy and fell asleep in the class. Balagopal, very young and mischievous then, crept up to her and tickled her ear with a feather trying to see if she would wake up!

His three students showed us the various pada chari, pada bheda, bhramari, bhangi and the various mudras taken from many sources: sculptures, shastras, and the local tradition. The base of course is the Abhinaya Chandrika, and post his stay in Kalakshetra, the Abhinaya Darpana. Not many know that Rukmini Devi influenced the revival of Odissi as well through two key people, Guru Mayadhar Raut and Sanjukta Panigrahi who trained at Kalakshetra.

It was very interesting to see the margam that was evolved by the Jayantika Association of gurus. Batu is not often performed now and I was glad to know that Guruji's school emphasises this in their repertoire. The Basanta Pallavi is a classic now, it is that familiar!

When Guruji performed on stage, we forgot that he is eighty years old. A dancer is always young at heart!

Shantha

Here is the report in the Hindu Online about the First Day