Powerful presentation of Shri Jagannath Ashtakam in Odissi Konark Dance Festival 2024 Shashiprabha Tiwari Bhubaneswar.

There are millions of definitions of dance because there are millions of dimensions of life. Life is dance and dance is life. Even in sleep, thinking goes on. That too is dance. Where there is movement, there is dance. Our ancestors have given it a high place. Dance is the essence of life.

Life should not be discordant and out of tune. This is the science of all arts. In India, music and dance are not separate. Our traditions are connected to each other. There are five fingers in a palm, all are connected. Everything is important and arts bring sublimity to life. The culmination of this is Konark Festival 2024.

The first evening of the festival was inaugurated by the newly elected Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Deputy Chief Minister Parvati Parida. Konark Utsav started with the performance of artists of Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya. This music college was established in the year 1964. Odissi dance and music are taught here. The students here started the festival auspiciously with their enchanting dance performance. They worshiped Lord Jagannath, the main deity of the holy land of Odisha.

The first presentation in his worship was Shri Jagannath Ashtakam. This was based on Shri Jagannath Ashtakam ‘Kadachitkalinditattavipin sangeetkarvo’ composed by Adi Shankaracharya. In this, the portrayal of the famous Rath Yatra episode of Puri was made in the traditional tune and the presentation became amazing. It was tempting to depict Lord Jagannath as Dayasindhu, Jagatdhari, Pramathapati, Parabrahma.

The second performance by the artists of Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya was Bhavarang. It was based on the part of Shrikrishnashtakam- ‘Bhaje Vrajakmandanam Samastapakhandanam’ with the tunes of traditional drums. Shrikrishnashtakam is also the composition of Adi Shankaracharya. In this presentation, the use of Odissi music and verses was very attractive. The playfulness of Krishna and his friends was depicted through the verse ‘Nache Giridhar Nagar’. The depiction of ball play and Kaliya Mardan episode was very impressive.

His next presentation was Shakti. In this, the fierce forms of Goddess Durga were especially depicted. In this, forms like Jagatpalini, Ghora, Gauri, Durga, Neelsundari etc. were depicted. This composition was based on ‘Namaste Chand Mund Vinashini’ and ‘Narayani Vishnu Pujya’. The music of all these performances was composed by Srinivas Satpathy and directed by Guru Bijay Kumar Jena and Bijay Kumar Barik. Dhaneshwar Swain was also a part of this group. The choreography was done by Guru Lingaraj Pradhan and Guru Pankaj Kumar Pradhan.

The second artist of the 35th Konark Festival 2024 was Kathak dance guru Malti Shyam and her disciples. They presented the dance composition – Nritya Manjari. It started with Krishna Vandana. This composition was based on ‘Darshan Dijai Tribhuvan Pali’. The second presentation was on pure dance. It was the nine-matra taal Basant. The technical aspects of Kathak were presented in it. Along with this, Pandit Birju Maharaj’s poem ‘Jab Krishna taal det Jamuna hilor let’ was woven into Kathak. The heroine’s emotions were presented in the next part.

It was set in Teen Taal and Tishra Jati. In this, the heroine’s emotions were depicted through the compositions ‘Manmohana Tori Muraliya’, ‘Chanchal Chatur Naar’ and Tarana. Kathak’s Tihaiyaan, Chalan, Gat and Chakkar were used. In the end, there was a presentation of Jugalbandi. The accompanists for this performance included Yogesh Gangani on tabla, Mahaveer Gangani on pakhavaj and Samiullah Khan on vocals.