Kolkata has always provided a platform for art and artistes from different fields of art and culture. Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s involvement with Odissi and the Odissi dancers of Kolkata is unique in the fact that Kolkata produced many Odissi dancers of national and international repute. In order to keep this legacy alive we have established the Kolkata Chapter of “SRJAN, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odissi Nrityabasa” since January 2005 to continue and propagate and immortalize the dance form of Guruji’s gharana.
Along with a dance school where senior faculty of Srjan has been teaching Odissi, Srjan’ Kolkata Chapter will mount a major dance festival “Deesha” every year on 8th January to celebrate Guruji’s birthday, Deesha’s cherished objective is to extend the horizons of the Odissi heritage and create a special and permanent place for this fragile tradition in the resplendent world of classical dance and music and would also play a vital role to promote solo dancing, which is the very soul of classical dance. Srjan Kolkata Chapter will confer the “Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Yuva Prativa Samman” every year on an individual between 16 to 28 years age.
Srjan’s Kolkata Chapter derives its inspiration from the fountainhead of the Odissi dance of our times-Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. In his own life Guruji demonstrated an unparalleled dedication to his craft, to his performance, to his students, to his God. Guruji’s devotion carried Odissi from its humble confines to its present universal status as a resplendent dance form in the classical mould.
Kolkata Chapter’s humble venture is to engender the same untiring spirit and commitment in an award winners’ mind-through training, performance, practice, sincerity, self-confidence and perseverance, to focus all their energies into taking their art to splendid heights. The Yuva Prativa Samman is just a beginning - the first steps toward a vision that encompasses the finest in the classical tradition of dance and music.
At Srjan, we in our small and humble way continue to keep the flag of hope flying. In the teaching and performance of Odissi dance and music, we strive to convey to our students and audiences what has been handed down to us by the immortality of our tradition, and its tireless upholder-Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. In our work we are guided by the Master who refused to lose faith in human dignity, in the relentless pursuit of excellence. In our lives, we constantly learnt from his simplicity, from his simple & direct way of looking at life & art.
