Odissi Puts a Master in the Spotlight

An air of reverence surrounded the performance of Odissi dance at Lakewood Senior High School Auditorium in Lakewood Saturday night. There were the usual danced invocations to deities and stories about the gods’ exploits; but in the flesh, there were also two honored masters who have had major roles in the 20th century renaissance of Indian performing arts.

Onstage, Kelucharan Mohapatra celebrated his 70th birthday year by performing with dancers from the school he founded, Srjan, now directed by his son Ratikant. And in the audience sat Ravi Shankar, an Odissi fan who shared in a mutual admiration gift-giving ceremony at concert’s end.

While Shankar’s contribution was to the sitar, Mohapatra helped revive the Odissi dance form, which was an ancient tradition fallen on hard times when Mohapatra first started out. Through the years, he has helped to research, codify and popularize the form.

With support from musicians during the first act, Mohapatra displayed his depth of talent at abhinaya (expressive mime) in “Krishna Sudama.” The planes of his finely boned face registered with ease the multifaceted yearning of the human Radha for the divine Krishna, as anxious glances or shy flirtation melted into prayerful desire.

The program was dominated by the narrative side of Odissi--the second act was a drama in many scenes to taped music--but the one extended abstract dance for four women provided another highlight. Unlike Ratikant Mohapatra, whose style is heavier and less detailed, the women--led beautifully by Sujata Mohanty--displayed the lilting side-to-side Odissi style with elegant exactitude. The smoothly evolving choreographic formations were wonderfully diverse and were executed so well, more of them would have been welcome.