BHUBANESWAR: The stage is set for Odissi International-2011, the second annual international Odissi dance festival at Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya auditorium here, commencing on Sunday. The five-day festival is being hosted by the two-decade-old cultural organisation Samskritiki in association with Odisha Tourism and the Department of Culture of the Government of Odisha. Nearly 200 Odissi dancers from 17 countries are participating in this event, announced festival convener Kedar Mishra. “Odissi International is not a conventional dance festival. It has been conceptualised as an annual union of the ever growing global Odissi family in the land of Odissi,” he maintained. The festival had more than 150 dancers from 15 countries last year, he added. While the largest number of dancers have come from the USA, Russia and Japan, for the first time this year dancers from Israel, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Brazil are participating in this global gathering, it was learnt. The inauguration will be at 11 am on Sunday. The dance performances will be from 2 pm to 10 pm daily, Mishra said. The festival will feature star dancers like Aruna Mohanty, Sujata Mohapatra and Meera Das, apart from four Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Prativa Puraskar recipients Leena Mohanty, Madhusmita Mohanty, Rahul Acharya and Lingaraj Pradhan, the hosts announced. With the focus of the festival on the future faces of Odissi, a large number of budding and young dancers have been invited. Well-known dance scholar Sunil Kothari from New Delhi and eminent Odissi dancers like Minati Mishra, Priyambada Hejmadi, Sonal Mansingh, Ritha Devi, Kumkum Mohanty and Mardal Guru Banamali Moharana are joining the festival as special guests.The festival committee is headed by Odissi vocalist and music composer Guru Ramahari Das who heads the State-owned Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre, said Mishra.
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