It was a rare opportunity for a select Kolkata audience to witness the captivating recital of the distinguished Odissi dancer Rajashree Behera, the Regional Director of Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, Kolkata, along with the talented young Rahul Acharya in the seldom seen Guru Debaprasad Das style at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy recently.
Both are disciples of guru Durgacharan Ranbir (Rajashree also learnt from guru Harihar Mohanty ), who carries forward the Debaprasad style that embraces simple, naturalistic movements and lays equal emphasis on folk, tribal and classical dance traditions to attain a reasonable syntheses in the dance form. An outstanding feature of Debaprasad’s style is his application of the ‘shabda swara pata’ dialects (rhythmic recitation of words with swaras), which he projected in most of his compositions.
The presentation saw the potency of these dialects (shabdas) in a few of the items. Rajashree with her striking lines is a seasoned dancer and has performed the world over and in major festivals in the country, but this was her first performance in the city.
Rahul Acharya is the first male dancer to be awarded the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar and has performed in different venues and also participated in a number of national and international festivals.
The evening’s recital began with the ritualistic Mangalacharan. Rajashree entered the performance space with ‘anjali hasta’ offering ‘pushpanjali’ followed by bhoomi pranam and vandana and finally sabha pranam and Rahul did likewise.
‘Ganesh tandava’ choreographed by Debaprasad Das in raga Bajrakanti, set to taal ektaali, was used as the invocatory piece. The energetic nritta, projected with the ‘shabda swara pata’ in this Mangalacharan, had verve and grace.
Training and expertiseThe technical skill of the dancers, who alternated in performance, spoke of rigorous training and expertise and the gap of two years in Rajashree’s performance did not tarnish the lustre of her execution. Abhinaya is Rajashree’s forte and her next piece was ‘Navarasa’, one of the most popular compositions by Debaprasad. The nine emotions (rasa) were expressed from the stories of Ramayana.
Beginning with ‘Shringar,’ where Ram and Sita share a tender moment in exile, Rajashree’s passionate abhinaya with arresting images of peacock in the forest moved on to Ram’s valour or ‘Veer’-rasa while breaking the ‘Shivadhanu’ at the Sitaswayambara.
The dignified performance of ‘Karuna,’ where Ram offers moksha or salvation to Jatayu was as touching as the impact of wonder or ‘Adhbhuta’ at the sight of the bridge constructed by the monkey brigade. Rajashree used her eyes in good measure to her advantage as she did a distorted face, while enacting vultures and animals licking blood from carcasses in the battlefield in Lanka reflecting ‘Bhibhatsa’ rasa.
‘Hasya’ was one of the best rasas captured by the dancer both as Lakshman and as Surpanakha with a chopped-off nose. ‘Bhaya’ was depicted by Ravana when he sees Ram but overcomes it to express ‘Raudra,’ while at war with him. The final blessings to Rama by sages were an expression of ‘Shanta’ or peace.
Demonstrating the mastery over rhythm and its intricacies was Rahul Acharya with his stimulating ‘Sthayi’ nritta, showing the different postures of Batuka Bhairaba taken from the sculptures on the outer walls of the Odisha temples and the poses of dancers and musicians playing different musical instruments. Set to raga Shankaravaranam, ektaali, the piece choreographed by Debaprasad was a celebration of beauty with some fine chauk, tribhanga, darpani and ‘udbahita kati karma’ or waist movement skill and arresting images.
Another soul-stirring abhinaya by Rajashree was dedicated to Lord Jagannath, in the song, ‘Maana Udharana Kara He Karana Sharana Mu’ penned by Kavi samrat Upendra Bhanja set to raga Arabi and taal triputa, choreographed by Durgacharan Ranbir.
Rajashree took the song to a higher consciousness with her captivating abhinaya in the different episodes that the lyrics expressed.
A totally involved Rajashree, proved her versatility in this appealing number.
It was necessary to quicken the vision to luxuriate in Rahul’s delightful ‘Shivashtaka’ set to raga Bhairavi, ektaali, by Ramhari Das with resonating rhythm composed by Dhaneswar Swain and the eight verses of Shankaracharya opening with ‘Vande Shambhu Umapathim Suragurum, Vande Jagat Kaaranam,’ choreographed by Ranbir. Agility, balance, and firmness of posture and movement were the strong points of this promising dancer.
Circumscribing the performance space with powerful strides and in ‘Urdhwa Tandava,’ with one foot held high in unwavering ease and grace was not only a fascinating imagery but an aesthetic overtone at the interpretative level of dance enhanced by the repetitive ‘Pranamami Shivam Shiva Kalpataru’.
The change of ‘arasa’ (formulated with different vanis), after two shabdas, drew special attention in this composition.
The recital concluded with a well co-ordinated Moksha set to raga Shankaravaranam, ektaali, by the duo and a prayer, ‘Sarvamangalya Mangalye’ to the Divine Mother. The full house and the very rewarding presentation called for more such recitals by Rajashree.
