Dance: Purva Pravaha – Dances From The East
The evening of classical dances from the east of India will feature solos and a duet by dancers Dr. Debanjali Biswas and Pallabi Basak Vijay. Their chosen pieces in Manipuri and Odissi will showcase elements of nṛtta and abhinaya, narratives from storytelling and textual traditions, and will end in a collaborative piece signifying harmony.
Dr. Debanjali Biswas dances Manipuri, with a performing career of over two decades as a dance practitioner and a performance maker. She began her tutelage with Vidushi Poushali Chatterjee in late Oja Bipin Singh’s style and has been expanding her practice with Padma Shri Guru Darshana Jhaveri, Padma Shri Oja Thiyam Suryamukhi Devi, Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Prof. Sruti Bandopadhyay, and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Oja Ranjeet Chingtham Khuman.
Debanjali is an empanelled artist with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), and a co- director of the performance collaborative Mitrādheya. Besides classical Manipuri performances as a soloist and ensemble artist, Debanjali’s choreographies have been supported by the South Asian Arts-UK, Tower Hamlets Council in partnership with Queen Mary University of London (London), Gati Dance Forum (New Delhi), Temple of Fine Arts (Kuala Lumpur), Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt), and International Young Choreographers’ Project (Kaohsiung). She has performed extensively, globally. Debanjali is an early career researcher in social anthropology and theatre, performance and dance studies with a commitment towards engaging academia and public with her research.
Pallabi Basak Vijay is an Odissi dance artist and a management professional working in business operations. She is a recipient of the national scholarship under the Govt. of India, Ministry of Culture. Pallabi is disciple of late Guru Smt. Poushali Mukherjee and has also received training under Guru Smt. Sutapa Talukdar/Padmashree Guru Aruna Mohanty and Guru Gajendra Panda. She has performed extensively in India including at the Konark and Mukteshwar Festivals. In collaboration with ICCR, she has performed in South America, Bangladesh and USA. In the UK, she has performed at the The Bhavan, Bloomsbury festival, Hemantika Dance Festival, Devonshire Square festival, Yuva Nartan Festival, Indus Arts festival, Anhad Festival, Diwali at The Curve in Leicester by CICD, London Science Museum, 60th year of India-Bangladesh friendship by the Indian High Commission. Pallabi co-organised and performed at the London Odissi Mela and curated Maarga-Paving a path with Odissi in collaboration with SOAS and Orissa Dance Academy that showcased the artistry, fluidity and variance in Odissi in an online series of workshop organised by the Nehru Centre. She is a member of Odissi Fast Forward and ReRooted Dance Collective projects, and was recently awarded a grant by the Arts Council of England for her R&D project titled “World of Fantasy”, which will explore the Bengal Patachitra art and one of its prominent stories - Maacher Biye.