Natya Tarang Festival of Arts, Rahul Acharya and Anindita Nanda
By Gauri Chandna
On May 18th, 2014, Soortaal and Milan
Organization, as part of Natya Tarang Festival of Arts 2014, presented Odissi Classical Dance Recital by
World Renowned artists Rahul Acharya (India) www.rahulacharya.com) and Anindita Nanda
(USA) (http://www.soortaal.org/natyatarang/)
at the beautiful Edmond Town Hall, in Newtown Connecticut.
Rahul Acharya is one of the most loved and popular Odissi
soloists in the International arena. Since the age of 4, Rahul has been
training under Guru Durga Charan Ranbir in Orissa. He tours the world
extensively and is trained in Hatha and Raja Yoga. He is a recipient of Junior
and Senior Scholarship from Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and
Culture, Government of India. He is an Empanelled Artist of the Indian Council
of Cultural Relationships, an honorary member of Sacred Dance Guild , USA,
Member of International Dance Council, CID UNESCO; has collaborated with Sutra
Dance Theatre , Malaysia, is a member of the World Movement of Fine Arts Italy,
Graded Artist of Doordarshan India, First male Odissi Dancer to be awarded the
Yuva Puraskar by the Sangeet Natya Academy, New Delhi , has been honored by the
Orissa Society of America and the Jagannath Society of America
Such accomplishment is achieved by hard work, dedication and
precision. The audiences at Newtown CT witnessed perfection through dance as
Rahul performed individual items as well as joint presetations along with
Anindita Nanda, a rare combination of dancer, teacher, classical vocalist,
choreographer and a scholar. Anindita is an accomplished artist of Guru
Kelucharan Mohapatra Gharana of dancing. She has a Masters in India classical
dance and Vocal from ABGMM, India. She is the disciple of Guru Kishore and Guru
Pranab Biswas in vocal music. She has also trained at the Odissi Dance Academy,
India. She is the recipient of several awards like “Nrtiya Shree”, “Nrtiya
Visharad” and “Nrtiya Praveen” in India. She is a recipient of Junior and Senior
Scholarship from Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government
of India and “Human Greatness Award” from the city of Danbury, CT. She was
recently invited by the Indian Embassy to open for the Festival of India ,
Buenos Aires, Argentina and has also completed her Suth American tour. She is the
Founder of the NTFA, which was started in 2011 and is in its 4th
year of presentation.
As part of this presentation, Anindita opened the show with Nabadurga through
which she projected emotions and expressions of the divine warrior Goddess Durga
as she demonstrated sensationally , the destruction of the tyrant forces of the
earth. This was followed by a pure dance piece Sthayee, a joint performance by
Anindita and Rahul, which was perfectly orchestrated to embody the nuances and
grammar Odissi dance. This performance truly highlighted the extensive postures
and poses of the dance that took its cues from the sculptures that decorate
Orissan temples. Next, Rahul depicted a story that is believed to have been
penned by Lord Krishna himself. This “Priyacharushila” was an exquisite representation
of fondly amorous interactions of Radha and Krishna. Other presentations
included Hanswadwani Pallavi, a pure dance piece ; Chandana Charchita, an
excerpt from the 12th Century Sanskrit literacy classic ‘Geeta
Govinda’; Shakarabharanam Pallavi, Patdeep Pallavi, and Ahenila Shail, one of
the most famous Oriya poem in praise of Lord Jagannath.
The grand presentation of the evening was the famous
Ashtasambhu presented by the talented and accomplished Rahul Acharya. This
special dance marks the period of destruction when creation meets dissolution.
Shiva is the creator of dance. He is the cosmic dancer. In these eight seminal
verses, Venkatmakhi alias Venkataramana Dikhshithat, describes him as the
supreme benevolent lord who holds the daughter of Himalaya, Parvati on his
left. He is the one who destroys the demons. He drinks the ocean of poison for the
sake of the world. He performs Tandava. This extremely vigorous and heavily
accentuated dance left the audiences mesmerized and awed. This was
appropriately selected as the final piece of the festival.
The Foundations TV was present at the location and was privileged
to interview both artists back stage. These will soon be available on our
channel.
