Gotipua Dance & Yoga workshop in Raghurajpur
to celebrate Sanskruti Sanjoga
20th January to 19th February 2012
Sanskruti Sanjoga: a great cultural meet for the acculturation of performing arts through the research of Indian Arts & Culture
organised by Abhinna Sundar Gotipua Nrutya Parishad
Our Dance Institute has taken an oath to celebrate "Sanskruti Sanjoga", a great cultural meet for the acculturation of performing arts through the research and resources of Indian Arts & Culture.
We are going to open the workshop for those who keep interest in learning the techniques of Gotipua dance, with music, yoga and contemporary Indian Art.
The workshop will be opened from 20th Janurary to 19th February 2012.
Every Sunday evening will be entertained with the traditional art & culture, as it is a holiday.
On 20th February, the Sanskruti Sanjoga Festival will be celebrated.
Program:
1. Alap (vocal recitation)
2. Surya Namaskar (salutation to the Sun God)
3. Pratha Prarthana (morning prayer)
4. Bandha (acrobatic postures of Yoga)
5. Swara Sadhana (tune practice)
6. Chowka (traditional exercise)
7. Vyayam (physical exercise)
8. Learning Gotipua movements
9. Learning Mudra exposition
10. Sandhya Prarthana (evening prayer)
Self Performance: the learner may be interested to perform what is learnt. Nobody is bound to exhibit it.
The participant has to bear 500 euros to attend all the programs for one month. One has to bear 150 euros for one week.
After completion of workshop/festival, those who want to know more about the above activities, may stay with due consultation with the Director.
Facilities: the participant will be facilitated with food and staying accomodation. The organization will help everyone to enjoy this special event.
Videorecording of performance in Quai Branly Museum - Paris - France
Saturday 12th of June 2010
Natya - Sacred Dances of India from Assam to Orissa
From the distant Brahmaputra valley at the foot of the Himalayas to the thousand-year-old temples of Orissa, Lord Krishna is constantly reincarnated in the graceful movements of the dancing Monks of Majuli (Assam), (Artistic direction: Sri Bhabananda Hazarika Borbayan – with the collaboration of the Preserve Majuli association) and in the acrobatic art of the young Gotipua dancers of the Raghurajpur Heritage Village (Orissa).
Since the 16th century the young gotipua boys of Orissa have represented in their dances the androgynous nature of divinity. Their acrobatic and fragile childhood is dedicated to Lord Krishna, the mischievous shepherd who seduced Radha with his divine flute, balanced on one leg. Their destiny is to embody the divinity in the closed universe of the temples, a world of incense, offerings and incantatory chants.
Artistic direction: Basanta Kumar Moharana
Recorded by Arte LIVE WEB channel on saturday 12th of June 2010
HD | 49mn
Film Director: Christophe Bellemain
Production: Zaman Production | Alain Weber | Jean-Hervé Vidal Quai Branly Museum : Catherine Montlouis-Félicité | Margot Chancerelle
Video recorded June 7, 2010, in Batha Museum,
World Sacred Music Festival, Fès, Morocco
June 2010
A Day in the Life of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music
Gotipua performance from timecode 00:50 to 02:50
Michal Shapiro, Link TV's Director of Music Programming, gives insight into Link’s musical offerings, reports on concerts, and interviews with musicians, both international and local on her blog "World Music Blog".
The workshop is focused on the work on one’s body and voice, attention, concentration, on the practice of the different disciplines, on the work with nature and with silence. The inspiration and the work-structure come from the work of the Theatre of Sources directed by Jerzy Grotowski, in which Abani Biswas had collaborated from 1979 to 1983.
Gotipua Dance from Orissa with Susanta Moharana
from Abhinna Sundar Gotipua Nrutya Parishad
The roots of the Gotipua dance go back to the Indian Middle Ages and are linked to the ancient tradition of Devadasi (temple dancers). The soft harmony of acrobatic movements combined with vocal and instrumental accompaniment (Paknaj percussions and Armonium keyboards) characterize this traditional dance. The Gotipua celebrate a reunion of Man with Divinity in which the worshiper becomes identified with the female element (Shakibhave). Dancers are boys between the age of 8 and 15 dressed in woman’s clothes.
The Gotipua dance has some common traits with the Odissi dance, but the techniques of movement and the themes are very different from it. Using a very refined style, Gotipua dancers perform precise steps, as well as Mudras (hand gestures), eye and facial expression and Classic Yoga postures.
"They're here! They are small and dark in appearance, they move gracefully and quietly, have bright eyes and tell everyone a different story.
Their names are Joy, Anil, Adhar, Nepal, Visnu, Paremeswhar, Gauripoda, Susanta, Prosun, Tinkori, Baren. And Abani Biswas of course, who brought them to us even this year.
They are Milon Mela, they come from India. Every summer they give a small but rich and delicious taste of the traditional performing arts of their Country.
Baul, Gotipua, Chau, Kalaripayattu are just some of the ancient disciplines that are presented in their shows. Moreover, the workshops, seminars and meetings Milon Mela offer, are meant to explain, to make people understand that what they tell is not just folklore, beautiful colour and entertainment: it is something more, it is a ritual expression of the soul, an old tradition that is in a risk to vanish and that the "Source's research" project is proudly and courageously preserving.
Milon Mela are in Ozu, Monteleone Sabino, until early September. In this small and lost corner of Italy they tell their story in a language that needs no words.
Scent of curry aromas of incense, chants and drums. The little cultural centre is transformed into a strange gravitational centre where everything is mixed, where distances are disappearing and where differences become richness".
Everyone is invited to participate. More details HERE
June 10 to 13, 2010: Performances in France
Quai Branly Museum - Paris
April 2010
Natya - Sacred Dances of India (Assam and Orissa)
Religious dances of India from Assam to Orissa
From the distant Brahmaputra valley at the foot of the Himalayas to the thousand-year-old temples of Orissa, Lord Krishna is constantly reincarnated in the graceful movements of the dancing Monks of Majuli (Assam), (Artistic direction: Sri Bhabananda Hazarika Borbayan – with the collaboration of the Preserve Majuli association) and in the acrobatic art of the young Gotipua dancers of the Raghurajpur Heritage Village (Orissa).
Artistic direction: Basanta Kumar Moharana.
Since the 16th century the young gotipua boys of Orissa have represented in their dances the androgynous nature of divinity. Their acrobatic and fragile childhood is dedicated to Lord Krishna, the mischievous shepherd who seduced Radha with his divine flute, balanced on one leg. Their destiny is to embody the divinity in the closed universe of the temples, a world of incense, offerings and incantatory chants.
June 5, 2010: Performance in Fès - Morocco
World Sacred Music Festival
April 2010
The young dancers Gotipuas of Raghurajpur Heritage Village - India
Acrobatic dance and ritual of the temples of Orissa Basanta Moharana : direction
"I always remind my confused mind that this World is a Circus on tour,
in which only illusionists tricks can be seen,
But the confused mind takes everything for granted. " Gossain Bhava
In the traditional world, acrobatics is an expression of sacred and is intended to embody the supernatural through the human dexterity pushed to its climax, to create real living frescoes celebrating and honoring divinity.
At the heart of millennial temples in Orissa, the Lord Krishna continues to be reincarnated in the acrobatic art of gotipuas children dancers. Enchantment of the ritual, the deified bodies of the young gotipuas dancers contort themselves and compose real human pyramids evoking in an ancient style some lively scenes.
The body can indeed feminize in order to approach God better. Thus, since the sixteenth century, these gotipuas young boys show in their dance the androgynous nature of divinity. Their acrobat and fragile childhood is entirely dedicated to Krishna, the mischievous shepherd who seduced Radha with his divine flute balancing on one leg.
The small village of Raghurajpur is located in the district of Puri. Bordered by the river Bhargavi, its temple surrounded by coconut trees, betel vines, palms, mangoes and other tropical trees is a home to one of the last two schools of India to hand down this ancestral knowledge. It is in this closed universe where incenses, offerings and incantatory chants combine that this incantation of the bodies still flourishes.
With the collaboration of the Quai Branly Museum in Paris
