Jatraa by Aruna Mohanty & Meera by Chitra Visweswaran

Jatraa – The Journey of Odissi

By Aruna Mohanty & Orissa Dance Academy

Meera – The soul divine

Bharatanatyam by Chitra Visweswaran & Chidambaram Dance Company

Jatraa – The Journey of Odissi

From the point of view of the present, how does one view the entire panorama of Odissi Dance, which has traveled through an arduous journey of nearly two thousand years?

Padma Shri Aruna Mohanty, along with the Orissa Dance Academy, spins the story of transformation and resurgence of Odissi dance, spanning from the Jagannath temple of Puri right up to the contemporary stage through brief narrations and symbolic images. The genesis of Mangalacharan, Pallavi, Sthayi, Abhinaya and Moksha, which form the superstructures of Odissi, spring up from the sub-structures of the allied art forms and folk forms of Odisha such as Mahari, Gotipua, Sakhi Nata, Raasa and Leela.

Meera – The soul divine

Eminent dancer, teacher and choreographer par excellence, Padma Shri Chitra Visweswaran’s Meera is an attempt to look at the life of Meera from the perspective of a spiritual journey, rather than a historical one.  Born a princess, into the lap of luxury, Meera renounced it all, to follow a spiritual quest and thereby, came to be hailed by all posterity, as one of the greatest saint poetesses of Bharatvarsha (India). She was a woman of deep conviction, was defiant of the blind strictures of societal norms and had unshakeable faith in Krishna. The bonding with her beloved Giridhari was perhaps one that covered several janmas (births).