Vaishali Kala Kendra is one of the leading dance institutes formed with a view of promoting Odissi dance/vocal music in India from its origin place at Noida. The Institute is dedicated to propagating Odissi dance in the city where the awareness and popularity of this dance are now quite noticeable. The Kendra is focused towards its mission to see Odissi at the crescent of international fame and glory.
Carrying forward the teachings of great Guru Shrinath Raut Ji, Vaishali Kala Kendra, for more than Two decades organizes “Guru Pranam Utsav” in the memory and honor of the late Guru Shrinath Raut who dedicated his life proliferating the importance of Odissi as a cultural dance form.
The COVID-19 pandemic, as we all know, has had a tremendous impact on the art world. Live performances are progressively returning to the stage, with Covid restrictions being eased in some regions of the country, and to return to the live stage after 2 years. On the 29th of April 2022, Vaishali Kala Kendra celebrated WORLD DANCE DAY and Guru Pranam Utsav at Triveni Kala Sangam in New Delhi, beginning at 6:30 p.m. This event featured performances by dancers of various generations who had come together to appreciate dancing.
The event began with Padma Shri Nalaini and Padma Shri Kamalini Asthana Ji, Great Guru Jitendra Maharaj Ji, presenting Shradhanjali to Late Guru Srinath Raut.
This was followed by the dance repertoire starting with Manglacharan by Dr. Jyoti Shrivastava which is an invocatory dance item. The presentation was divine and full of energy as she was joined by her senior disciples Rahul Varshney and Shaily Chatterjee.
Managlacharan was followed by additional dance repertoires such as Sthayee, Saberi Pallavi, and Basant Pallavi, which the Vaishali Kala Kendra’s emerging dancers performed beautifully and energetically.
The dancers had had excellent training, and their joy at being back on stage after two years could be apparent on their faces.
Divyanshi Pasricha, Gauri Dubey, and Pranavi Bansal, followers of Guru Jitendra Maharaj, performed a magnificent Kathak performance during the ceremony.
Vaishali is celebrating World Dance Day. The institute’s tiniest tots, who have just recently begun learning, put on a really spectacular performance. This was a demonstration of how fundamentals are taught and how fundamental abilities enable dancers to dance with proper body placement and alignment, as well as become trained dancers.
The show also had solo performances by senior disciples of Dr. Jyoti Shrivastava.
Shaily Chatterjee performed Oriya Geet Ki elo Sajani, her performance was soulful and strongly portrayed her command over all the different bhavas and very strong satvik bhava, her performance was highly appreciated by the audience.
Kaori Naka from Japan also performed Solo on Ashtapadi Chandana Charchita where Sakhi Lalita is describing the beauty of Krishna. She did justice to the presentation with her strong footwork and years of practice which could be seen in her performance.
Krishna Tandav by Rahul Varshney was the evening’s final performance and was very engaging with very strong footwork and clean body lines.
The show concluded with the felicitation ceremony by Chief Guests and a Vote of Thanks. Over and all the show was put together nicely and was a visual delight.
