‘Kanchi Abhijana’ - Odissi dance by Manoranjan Pradhan

‘Kanchi Abhijana’ by Guru Manoranjan Pradhan and Troupe

National Institute of Technology, Rourkela is celebrating 53rd Institute Foundation Day on 15th August 2014. To commemorate this day, various programs have been organized bythe Literary and Cultural Society of SAC. Major among them was a SPIC MACAY event, ‘Kanchi abhijana’ by Guru Manoranjan Pradhan and Troupe from Utkal University of Culture.

Director of Dances: Guru Manoranjan Pradhan and Minati Pradhan

Artist: Manoranjan Pradhan, Minati Pradhan, Sachikanat Pradhan,

Other photo series of "Kanchi-Abhijana" published:

• Set of Black and White photos
• ‘Kanchi Abhijana’ - Series of Dance Mudras by Manoranjan and Minati Pradhan

Profile of Manoranjan Pradhan [1]

Guru Manoranjan Pradhan was trained at the Orissa Dance Academy in India under Guru Gangadhar Pradhan and completed his Master's degree in Odissi dance at Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, Utkal University. He underwent rigorous training with the doyen of Odissi dance Padma Bibhushan Kelucharan Mohapatra. He has performed on the stage & TV in India and abroad. A major time of his career has been spent dancing and teaching in Canada, Mexico and the United States

He has served as a guest lecturer in Odissi dance at the Standford University and shares his experience through extensive teaching at Odissi Dance Academy and Odissi Research Centre in Bhubaneswar. He toured the USA with Ralph Lemon's "Tree", second in series of the Geography Trilogy, with a company of dancers and musicians from all over the World. He also performed in Germany, Italy, Croatia and England.

Manoranjan Pradhan is married to dancer Minati Dasgupta (Now Minati Pradhan).

Few words about SPIC MACAY:

Thanks to Spic-Macay to let me have many wonderful experiences to listen live to some of great Indian performers. At IIT Bombay, I got an opportunity to listen to Pt. Runu Muzumdar, Pt. Arti Ankalikar-Tikekar, Pt Vishvamohan Bhatt, and Pt Vijay Ghate. Now experiencing simlar at NIT Rourkela. Looking forward to cover many more such events !

SPIC MACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth) is a voluntary movement founded in 1977 by Dr Kiran Seth, a Professor at IIT-Delhi who was awarded the ‘Padma Shri’ for his contribution to the arts in 2009 [2]. 

Intention is to enrich the quality of formal education by increasing awareness about different aspects of Indian heritage and inspiring the young mind. It seeks to inspire youth through experiencing the rich and heterogeneous cultural tapestry of Indian and World Heritage, with a hope that the beauty, grace, values and wisdom embodied in these arts will influence their way of life and thinking and inspire one to become a better human being. For this, the most accomplished artistes of the country render programs of Indian classical music and dance, folk, poetry, theater, traditional paintings, crafts & yog  [2].

Felicitation of the performers by Prof. Sunil Kumar Sarangi (Director, NIT Rourkela)

Experiences while shooting:

Photographing Odissi performance is a great opportunity to practice different aspects of photography. Almost every time I did, I have enjoyed. However, this time shooting at Behera Auditorium experience was a sad episode. Light operator seemed to be too innocent and operated the lights like a switch-loving child, a child who switches on and off at its will. To add to it, lights were LED based and were located at a lower height. LED lights with violet and red color are difficult to focus in. Avoiding a direct light appearing in photograph was a task in itself.

This experience taught me following lessons:

1. A lens more than 200 mm focal length is a must in kit. Longer focal length will help in choosing a good background, specially when some banner is displayed on stage.  I used 105 mm macro lens.

2. Underexposed but sharp photos are better than no or blurred photos at all. As I shoot in RAW, I can fix some of them later.

Reference:

[1] http://odissi.blogspot.in/2007/09/manoranjan-pradhan.html
[2] http://spicmacay.com/