The great international Odissi dancer Dipanwita Roy came last Thursday to the Alliance Française du Bengale in Kolkata, to present a part of her artistic work in front of an attentive and passionate audience.
She came to elucidate the aspects of what a traditional Indian dance can do when it is associated with modern music and musicians from all around the world, especially from France. It is because she is more than a normal and simple dancer, more than a disciple to the great gurus, Padmavibhushan Late Shri Kelucharan Mahapatra and Padmashree Late Shrimati Sanjukta Panigrahi, that she is able to accomplish such things.
Besides traditional dance recitals, workshops and demonstrations, she has also joined forces with Luc Candjardjis, a progressive French Jazz musician, since 2004. They jointly devised and conducted a performance on two original compositions, to create a special show, which she was presenting here at the Alliance Française du Bengale. This programme named Odissiel, was performed earlier in several places around the world as well as in France, at the Musée Guimet and in Orly.
It is also because Dipanwita Roy loves to share her experiences and feelings that she came here for this conference and presentation. She has been conducting a school of Odissi dance since 1985, Shibaranjani, in which she imparts the nuances and the complexities of that particular dance form to many Indian and foreign students. Thanks to her, some of them have become dancers of repute by performing at many prestigious programmes in India and in foreign countries as well. So her sensitive rendering of dramatic expressions and her style of conveying her feelings and sensations through body movements, are distinctly revealed in her own performances, as well as in her teaching class. The audience at the Alliance Française du Bengale was very happy and Dipanwita Roy always finds a sympathetic ear, equally here and in France.
