Sreyashi Dey is an exponent of the Odissi style of Indian classical dance and a disciple of Guru Gangadhar Pradhan, Founder-Director of the Orissa Dance Academy in Bhubaneswar. She was initiated into Odissi by renowned Guru Mayadhar Raut in New Delhi, India. In addition, Sreyashi also trained extensively in Bharata Natyam under Gurus Saroja Vaidyanathan in the Pandanallur style and Lalita Shastri in the Kalakshetra style. Her extensive training has spanned over two decades and has provided the foundation for her distinguished performing career. She has performed in several prestigious dance festivals and events all over India and abroad. Sreyashi has a Master's degree in Economics and an MBA. She has lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since 1995 and is the Founder, President and Artistic Director of Srishti Dance of India, a dance company specializing in Odissi dance.         Photo © 2004 Srishti Dances of India

Concert Review by Dr.Ratna Roy

Sreyashi Dey, Founder, President, and Artistic Director of Srishti, was accompanied by her twin daughters, Ishika and Kritika Rajan, in the concluding Ragamala sponsored event of Utsav 2007, “Odissi Dance,” on October 14, 2007, at the McEachern Auditorium, Museum of History and Industry, Seattle. The program was neither too short nor too long. It was a pleasant surprise to witness Odissi performed well, especially given the ages of two of the three dancers. It was also heartening to watch a mother dancing with both of her daughters.

Sreyashi began her training under the eminent first generation guru of neo-classical Odissi, Mayadhar Raut, now stationed in New Delhi. However, much of her performance reflected the style of her present guru, Gangadhar Pradhan and his Orissa Dance Academy. Guru Gangadhar Pradhan, an eminent second generation guru, began his training as a gotipua (cross dressed young male dancer) in the temple of Balumkesvara at Dimiri Sena (near Puri) under Sri Bancchanidhi Pradhan, Sri Chandra Shekhar Patnaik, and another first generation guru of classical Odissi, Mahadev Rout. In his late teens he joined the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya and trained in Odissi dance under both Guru Deba Prasad Das and Guru Pankaj Charan Das. After his graduation, he received an award to train under the legendary guru, Kelu Charan Mohapatra, in a style that he finally espoused. The style thus developed is very beautiful and syncretic. Sreyashi has inherited this style that incorporates all four first generation gurus who lived and died in Orissa with the addition of Guru Mayadhar Raut’s style, learnt in her early years.

The performance opened with all three dancers in “Nava Durga,” a Pankaj Charan Das choreography, tweaked by Guru Gangadhar Pradhan. The music for the piece was composed by the Late Sangeet Sudhakar Bala Krushna Das in the Bhairav rag and Jati tal. The poses were powerful and reflected the choreography and vision of Guru Pankaj Charan Das. Particularly striking were the stills of Sumbha and Nisumbha killed by the Goddess, Durga as Mahisamardini, some of the Nava Durga formations of the trio, “Bhairava deha lina pare,” and the sequence concluding in “Namastasyi namoh namah.” The four-armed and six-armed Durga sequences were well-rehearsed and perfect in their formations even through vigorous movements. The complexity of the piece that brings out the sweetness of the Mother Goddess Durga counterbalancing her power was lacking. However, that did not detract from a dance well executed.

The next item, a pallavi, in rag Arabhi and Ek tali, came from the repertoire of Padmavibhushan Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra. “Arabhi Pallavi” was created by the guru in conjunction with Pandit Bhubaneswar Mishra, a superb violinist and one of the foremost composers of Odissi music. This dance is part of a collective of Pallavi gems created at the height of both their careers, never really equaled. Arabhi Pallavi was one of the highlights of the evening’s performance, opening with a staggered entrance and continuing on to geometric formations and re-formations in perfect rhythm. However, the circular anga movement for the entrance, introduced by Guru Pankaj Charan Das in the choreography, was strikingly missing. The dance would also have been enhanced had both Ishika and Kritika, particularly the latter, looked like they were enjoying the dance.

“Manini,” introduced as a “contemporary” abhinaya, performed by Sreyashi as a solo item, and choreographed by her guru, Gangadhar Pradhan, with music composition by Sri Ramahari Das and Prafulla Kar, was to poetry written by the Oriya poets, Gopala Krushna and Bhaktakabi Banamali Das. Radha prepares her kunja for her tryst with Krishna while indulging in romantic nostalgia imagining the matchless beauty of her lover with his crown of jewels and dazzling yellow garment. But as the night wears on and he does not arrive, she imagines the worst: another woman has used her magic powers to prevent him from coming to the tryst. She searches for him and finally succumbs to her anger at having been deceived by him. She tears down everything she had put together the night before and falls down despondent. Sreyashi’s abhinaya was well-executed. The choreography is busy allowing little time for the development of Radha’s emotion, making it challenging for the dancer. However, Sreyashi did the best she could to bring out the complexity of Radha’s emotions.

Unfortunately, none of the narration included the raga and tala of the pieces danced. Given the emergence of Odissi music as a classical style with names of ragas that are different from the Hindustani and Carnatic gharanas, it was important to include these in the program notes. The talas used for the mardala are also different from the two well-known gharanas, and it is important to include those in the program notes.

The next dance, performed by the twin sisters, “Dasavatara,” was the first dance historically to be choreographed in neo-classical Odissi by Guru Pankaj Charan Das as a duet for Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra and Smt. Laxmipriya Devi, later to become Kelu Charan’s wife. The bols were Hindustani and created by Sri Durlav Chandra Singh. Tonight’s rendition was a restaging by Guru Gangadhar Pradhan of the later reworked choreography by Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra using Odissi ukuttas rather than Hindustani bols. The music composition for this piece was by the Late Sangeet Sudhakar Bala Krushna Das and Pandit Bhubaneswar Mishra. A famous dance from Sri Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda, it was an essential item in the early reconstructed years of Odissi dance. The dance depicts the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu, equated with Sri Krishna in Orissa: Matsya (Fish), Kurma (Tortoise), Varaha (Wild boar), Narasimha (Lion-Man), Vamana (Dwarf), Parasurama, Rama, Balarama, Buddha, and Kalki. The young dancers, trained by their mother and Guru Manoranjan Pradhan, Orissa Dance Academy, reminded the writer of young Aruna Mohanty and Nandita Behera. The dancers were accomplished and well-trained. They rendered the ukuttas with precision. Their poses in the “kesavadhrita . . . sharira” refrain sequences were carefully orchestrated. There is immense potential as they both develop their abhinaya skills and eventually engage their faces.

The final dance number, “Mokshya,” another Kelu Charan Mohapatra choreography, was rendered by all three dancers. This number in its brevity was a letdown. The original choreography was remade for a quick ending by the Orissa Dance Academy. Since this particular performance was well under two hours, the entire choreography would have been a fitting ending to the beautiful evening. The final “Om Shantih” vocals could also have been better. However, the dancers were warmed up in the final rendering of the last sloka and deserved their standing ovation.

It was certainly a befitting ending to Ragamala’s Utsav 2007.