The Konark Sun temple built in 1250 is an architectural marvel. The walls of the temple are adorned with statuettes of dancers in different poses, with their unmistakable aesthetic connection to the Odissi form that one is familiar with. Odisha Tourism could not have chosen a better venue and time than now to hold its five-day-long festival in the open air theatre, when the nights are pleasantly cool, to draw tourists and come evening, the whole place turns into a dreamland, with colourful lanterns hung in every nook and corner along with streams of coloured bulbs lighting up the performance area, engulfing one with sheer magnificence.

Though the various classical dance forms are invited from different parts of the country to perform at this prestigious festival, it is Odissi that takes precedence over others. Of the two groups that perform every evening, one was an Odissi group.

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Niranjan Rout’s troupe, Nupur Dance Academy from Bhubaneswar, based their choreographic piece on the mythology of Anangadev, who roused Shiva’s wrath for striking him with his love arrow and causing him to open his third eye and fall in love with Parvati. The gods in heaven had been drivena mad by the activities of Tarakasura, who could only be killed by the son of Shiva. Anangadev was turned to ash by the fire from Shiva’s third eye but he was allowed to live without his body to spread love, so vital for the survival of mankind, on condition that he will smite only the youth with his love arrow. Kartikeya born out of the wedlock of Shiva and Parvati killed Narakasura, goes the story. There was much drama mixed with dance and music. Anger and love shown by the Maha Yogi; sorrow of Rati, the wife of Ananga Dev; fire depicted by brisk hand movements and lighting; tandava nritya alongside lasya nritya — all of them were quite engrossing.

Donna Ganguly’s Journey through Odissi started with paying obeisance to Surya. Her presentation consisted of Mangalacharan where the dancers genuflected to Vishnu, the lord of the Devas and the consort of Lakshmi. The pure dance piece, which blossomed with intricate dance and sharp eye movements, was a Pallavi in raag Aravi. Since all the performers were dressed in black and danced their well rehearsed pieces, it went down well with the audience. They also seemed to have attracted the largest crowd. The strong music group led by Guru Ratikant Mohapatra on the mardala enhanced the beauty of the rendition.

Ardhanariswara illustrating the synthesis of masculine and feminine energies of the universe, well crafted by Ganguly’s late guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, was performed by the group with meticulous care, by explaining through the syntax of dance, the attributes of Shiva and Parvati merged in one body.

However the piece-de-resistance of the festival was the brilliant presentation of Ganjam performed by artists of Sutra Dance Theatre, concept and artistic direction of which was by Ramli Ibrahim of Malaysia and dance composition was by Odisha’s very own Gajendra Kumar Panda — a senior disciple of late Debaprasad Das, who followed the concept of Sabda Swarapata where traditional folk and semi-classical movements are merged into sophisticated classical movements. Panda has also trained in Sakhipila, where a boy dances as a girl. The creative imagination of Ramli produced kaleidoscopic designs to bring out the greatness of Ganjam in the traditional repertoire of Odissi. In reality it was an unprecedented work of a master craftsman. In Mangalacharan, blessings were sought from Gajanana, the promoter of vigorous and forceful dance and Lakshmi Narasimha, the man-lion god, drawing upon the signature prayer song of Prahlada Nataka, the folk theatre form of Ganjam. Sculptures of immaculate elegance imitating the stances of Sakhinata of Ganjam district were what the piece, Sthayi was all about.

The nagarkirtana tradition that includes the singing of Rama bhajan as devotional pieces in several shrines in South Odisha propounded the narratives of Daskathia, a popular folk form of Ganjam.  Before the advent of Vaishnavism, there was Shaivism in Odisha and people worshipped Shiva. Moksha highlighted the liberation of the dancers as well as the personified village goddesses who unites with Shiva. Through the play of sabda, Moksha or salvation was charged with boundless energy. Light designer Sivarajah Natarajan used his painting sensibilities to select amber and green lights to match the choreography and the music composition created rasa or aesthetic enjoyment.

On the fourth evening, rasikas were treated to Kaishiki’s presentation Navagraha choreographed by its artistic director, Daksha Mashruwala. Starting with the brightest orb, the Sun, an impressive array of dancers genuflected in the spirit of devotion one by one to all the houses — the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and of course, Rahu and Ketu, which are deities from Sanathan Dharma. After that there was a switch to pure nritta in raga Khamaj. The Oriya abhinaya piece of Salabega, choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra with music by Bhubaneswar Misra, is performed by dancers a million times over for the sheer beauty of it all. It preceded Vasant, which played on the motif of raga Malika and taal Malika. The artistic director showed discretion in not trying to grab the lime light. Debiprasad Misra’s fine lighting was very effective.

As a grand finale to the Konark Festival GKCM Odissi Research Centre with the support of their chief executive Sangeeta Gossain presented Ripu Parinaama. Kasturi Pattnaik is credited with the choreographic work of the piece. The stories of Shumbh Nishumbha; Narasimha Avatar; Kaikeyi, the queen of Dasaratha; Mighty Ravan, the king of Lanka and Duryodhona represented the six enemies of human beings.

The piece came with a message for modern man, who in their struggle to be civilised has gone deeper into negative qualities. The dancers however needed more practice. The music group was excellent though. The script was by Nityananda Misra who is a scholar par excellence.