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Press Release - 17th February, 2004 Among the many gems that Orissa has produced in different fields of art along the centuries, one of the latest is certainly the Odissi dance Guru Sri Kelucharan Mohapatra. The guru and his troupe from Srjan, performed at auditorium of Xavier Institute of Management on the occasion of the grand cultural evening on the 17th of February 2004. Born on 8th January 1926 at Raghurajpur, Puri, a gotipua dancer in his early life, he has trained by Guru Balabhadra Sahu, an outstanding Guru of his time. Thereafter, he perfected his abhinaya in dance during his twelve years of association with the Rasa Leela troupe of the great maestro Mohan Sunder Devgoswami and extensive study of the temples inscriptions and scriptures contributed to his control of the medium. His dedication has been acknowledged by a number of awards including the title of Padma Shree in 1975 and in 1981 he was conferred a Doctorate by the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. He won the Kalidas award by the Madhya Pradesh Government in 1987,the title of Padma Bhusan in 1988 and Padma Vibhusan was conferred to him by the president of India in March 2000.The story of his artistic experience touches all the silent features of the cultural life of Orissa of the last sixty years and it becomes the story of the growth and reorganization of the Odissi style as one of the classical dances of India. From the traditional expertise of the "Chitrakaras" through the entertaining art of the "Gotipua" and "Jatra" parties, the "Bhakti" oriented "Rasa leela" performances and the innovative attempts of the Annapurna Theatres, Guruji's artistic journey is one of the continuous learning and growth, which is today continued with his institution aptly named "Srjan". He can rightly be called the creator of today's Odissi, who enriched and perfected it with extraordinary sense of composition, form, style and technique. With his deep spiritual sense and aim towards perfection, he and his disciples have raised Odissi to the level of refinement which it enjoyed in the ancient past. Only masters like him can achieve without shifting Odissi from its traditional base. Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, has completed almost 17 years of purposeful existence, offering quality management education with a human face. During this short span of its existence, XIM has established an identity of its own, and it is getting to be known not only for its Post-Graduate Programmes but also for projects usually not found in management institutions. The faculty and the students, contribute to the building up of an organizational culture that focuses not only on academic excellence but overall growth of the personality. Hence performing arts and crafts are just a singular part of the rich cultural life at XIMB. Contributed by - |
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