The coming together of two styles

Odissi dancer Madhulita Mohapatra collaborates with K. Krishnamurthy Tunga, founder of Yakshakala Academy to present a dance choreography called An Enchanting Encounter- Odissi meets Yakshagana. “It is a fusion of Odissi dance and Yakshagana”, says Madhulita, who is also the founder of Nrityantar (school of Odissi dance in Bengaluru). The dance is part of a seven-day Fusion Music and Dance festival organised by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Odissi dancer Madhulita Mohapatra collaborates with K. Krishnamurthy Tunga, founder of Yakshakala Academy to present a dance choreography called An Enchanting Encounter- Odissi meets Yakshagana. “It is a fusion of Odissi dance and Yakshagana”, says Madhulita, who is also the founder of Nrityantar (school of Odissi dance in Bengaluru). The dance is part of a seven-day Fusion Music and Dance festival organised by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

“The dance depicts the story about Savitri and Satyavan, which appears as multiple narratives in Vana Parva (the Book of the Forest) in our epic Mahabharata. Savitri’s story illustrates the power of a woman’s unflinching love, chastity and devotion to her husband. This time we used Yakshagana too to be a part of this dance choreography,” says the dancer, who has conceptualised and choreographed the dance. Music is composed by Bijaya Kumar Jena and the script is written by Odia poet, Kedar Mishra.

She speaks to us from Odisha where she is presenting the same dance and says, “The fusion of Odissi and Yakshagana showcases not only the versatility of Indian classical dance forms but also enhances he storytelling with different dance vocabularies,” explains Madhulita, a recipient of the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from Central Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Tunga says that Madhulita wanted Yakshanaga to come in to portray the powerful character of Yama. “He is the god of death. His very name sends shivers down our spine. He is a character of vigour and hence Yakshagana is used to create and depict Yama in the dance.” Tunga says that they have not deviated from the classical boundaries, but the chande and Yakshana music come in for Yama while the rest comes in with Odissi music and the pakhawaj.

“The variation can be seen starkly in the music, costume and movement!,” says Tunga, from his dance school in Nagarbhavi. He started learning Yakshagana as a child. “I trained at the Shivaram Karanth Yakshagana Kendra in the gurukula system. The credit for instilling this passion for Yakshagana not only goes to my being born in Udupi, but also to my school headmaster MN Madhyastha. He was a great patron of this dance form. He is now retired, but, mentioning him as my menor in Yakshagana is an honour for me,” beams 54-0year-old Tunga, who worked in the Women and Child Welfare Department, Bengaluru and says: “despite having a full time government job, I pursued Yakshagana.” He will don the role of Yama in the dance choreography.

They will perform on January 20, 7 p.m. at Khincha Auditorium, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. The event is open to all.