'RAAS LEELA' 100th Show - Excerpts - Debamitra Sengupta & team

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Excerpts from our 100th show of Odissi Dance Drama : 'Raas Leela' - An exquisite and innovative Odissi Dance Drama based on Padabali Kirtan, composed and choreographed by Odissi exponent Smt. Debamitra Sengupta. For this unique and pioneering effort of combining Odissi Dance with the song-sequences of Padabali Kirtan, Debamitra has received Production Grant from Ministry of Culture, New Delhi, Govt. of India. Very popular production of Debamitra Sengupta, highly appreciated in different parts of India, completed 100 stage performances of 'Raas Leela'.
Uniqueness of this dance ballet is exquisite composition of Odissi dance on Padabali Kirtan. Based on Padabali Kirtan showing the joyous mood where the Gopinis dance with Krishna in a moonlit night of autumn beside the river Yamuna. In a traditional Kirtan style the dance drama begins with Gourchandrika, an invocation to Sri Chaitanya dev and ends with Maatan where all the bhaktas enter the stage in a Sankirtan style with Khol, mandira and flowers. Sringar rasa, the love for Krishna melts into devotion between man and the almighty.
Raas Leela is one of the many song-sequences that make up the corpus of Padabali Kirtan. Its songs depict the manner in which Krishna & Radha celebrate a festival of dance along with a bevy of gopis on a full-moon night in the month of Kartick. Kirtan is an art form that Bengalis can claim as their own. Debamitras mission is to try & revive the popularity of Kirtan and at the same time, to focus on it the attention of the people of light and leading. For sometimes now she has been doing research in the talas & rhythms of Kirtan. In her dance drama on Raas Leela she has used a few forgotten talas of the olden days. In her research into the talas of Kirtan she has received valuable guidance from Sri Brajarakhal Das, an eminent Khol player. In the music of Raas Lila Debamitra has used not only the Khol but the Pakhawaj as well. The two instruments have at time been played together in the manner of a duet to create the verisimilitude of a conversation between a man & a woman. The deep and rumbling notes of the Pakhawaj are meant to represent the voice of a man, while the sweet and soft notes of the Khol are intended to represent the voice of a woman.
Debamitra deserves to be congratulated on her brave and pioneering effort to combine Odissi Dance with the song-sequences of Padabali Kirtan, thus creating this delightful dance drama Raas Leela.
Kirtan & Narration : Smt. Shima Acharya Chaudhuri
Srikhol : Shri. Harekrishna Haldar
Pakhawaj : Shri. Uttam Mondal
Dance : Debamitra Sengupta (as Krishna) and her team of Mayur Lalit
Direction & Choreography : Debamitra Sengupta