Madhulita Mohapatra set to enthrall Hyderabad with her Odissi dance recital

Madhulita Mohapatra will perform a three-segment dance recital that focuses on mythology and the classical dance form of Odisha.
Madhulita Mohapatra set to enthrall Hyderabad with her Odissi dance recital

Bengaluru-based Madhulita Mohapatra has always been passionate about one thing in her life – dance. One of the first things that comes to her mind, when she thinks about high school is how she jumped the compound wall and sneaked out of her house to attend dance class. Twenty years later, this Odissi dancer has started her own dance school, Nrityantar Academy Of Performing Arts in Bengaluru. She will be staging an enchanting performance with her dance troupe, Nrityantar Dance Ensemble, this Sunday.

Madhulita Mohapatra
Madhulita Mohapatra

As a part of India International Dance Festival (a three-day travelling dance festival) the dance recital, choreographed by Aruna Mohanty, will feature three segments – Shivam Dhimahi, Jana Samohini and Radha Vadana. The performances, she says, are a retelling of mythological episodes from Indian folklore, woven beautifully with the “lyrical beauty of Odissi”. Spectators would also be able to see bhangi (postures) inspired by temples and sculptures from Odisha.

Interestingly, the 38-year-old dancer had to learn the Sambalpuri folk dance because there were no schools teaching Odissi back then. However, her quest to learn the former never died and she would learn bits of it by imitating stalwarts like Sanjukta Panigrahi and Kelucharan Mohapatra while she watched them on TV. During her high school, Madhulita’s parents wanted her to discontinue dance and focus on a ‘more promising’ career. “I never stopped dancing. For a long time, it was a secret. Later, I moved to Bhubaneswar for my higher studies and it became easier for me to continue dancing away from home,” she shares.

Despite being trained in Odissi for about 20 years, Madhulita says that her struggle did not stop even after she moved to a cosmoplitan city. “When I shifted to Bengaluru in 2009 and opened my dance school, nobody was ready to learn a dance form that was relatively new to them. Everybody wanted to learn Bharatanatyam,” she shares. Over the years, this trained dancer has created a niche for herself and has 200-odd students training under her today in four of her dance institutions.

November 5, 6.30 pm. At Shilparamam.
Details: 99089000088

 

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