Visakhapatnam dance festival brings classical and folk traditions together
The 18th Vysakhi Nrityotsav in Visakhapatnam presented classical, folk and regional dance forms across three evenings at the Kalabharathi auditorium. The festival also honoured Manipuri exponent Darshana Jhaveri, Bharatanatyam teacher Vasundhara Doraswamy and young performers Pavitra Krishna Bhat and Afsaan Gujaravat.
Visakhapatnam hosted the 18th Vysakhi Nrityotsav, a three-evening festival featuring classical, folk and regional dance performances at the Kalabharathi auditorium. The event was led by founder and festival director B.R. Vikram Kumar.
Its programme brought together several dance traditions, including Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Kathak, Bharatanatyam and Rajasthani folk dance, while also presenting an animal-mask dance from Odisha. Manipuri dance exponent and Padma Shri awardee Darshana Jhaveri received the Vysakhi Bharata Nritya Bhushan award. Bharatanatyam exponent Vasundhara Doraswamy was given the Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan Excellence award.
The festival’s Yuva Puraskar awards went to Pavitra Krishna Bhat and Afsaan Gujaravat. Gujaravat also performed with his troupe in a Rajasthani folk presentation during the closing programme on Sunday. The opening evening on Friday featured Shloka Pakala, a final-year B.Tech student at GITAM University, making her Kuchipudi Rangapravesham, or debut performance.
Her teacher, K.V. Lakshmi of the Nataraj Music and Dance Academy, provided the nattuvangam. On Saturday, Jhaveri and her troupe presented Manipuri dance, while Hari Reddy and his troupe performed Kathak.
An Odisha troupe led by Dhanu Bisai also staged an animal-mask dance, a form the report described as rarely presented in the city. Doraswamy and her Bharatanatyam troupe joined Gujaravat’s Rajasthani folk troupe for Sunday’s closing performances. The festival therefore combined established classical repertories, a young dancer’s debut and regional forms across its consecutive evenings in Visakhapatnam.
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