Odissi lovers will soon catch glimpses of all the age-defying rich works of legendary gurus and exponents on online platform as the digitisation process of the archives of classical dance have been initiated by the Odisha Culture Department and Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre.
The archives at the Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre preserves the footage of dances of all the prominent gurus since 1990. All the collections of the famous gurus will be digitised enabling the present and future generations to know the legacy of Odissi dance and music.
Once the digitisation is done, Odissi lovers can access all the great works of the legends like Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Deb Prasad Das, Guru Pankaj Charan Das and Sanjukta Panigrahi.
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The first phase digitisation work has been completed by the Odisha Small Industries Corporation at a cost of Rs 50 lakh while preparations for the second phase digitisation work has been started.
Dr Sangita Gosain, Chief Executive Officer of Odissi Research Centre said, "The archives at Kelu Charan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre is the rarest archive of Odisan Culture. We had a dream of digitising the archives as many people from outside Odisha used to ask us how they could reach out to the rich works preserved here."
"We are carrying out the digitisation work through OSIC (Odisha Small Industries Corporation) and half of the works have been completed," she added.
The digitised works are expected to immensely help the new generation of research scholars as well as students. They can access the materials by paying a minimal fee.
The initiative of the State Culture department and Odisha Research Centre has received appreciation from both dancers and gurus.
Prativa Panda, Oddisi guru said, "It is a very good effort, otherwise the rich works will get vanish after some time. Students will get inclined towards the rich art form after coming across the famous works while gurus like us will get to learn a lot from it."
Rajashree Das, an Odissi dancer said, "The initiative will enable our next generation to watch the pure works of the legendary dancers who laid the foundation of the classical dance form. This is because nowadays some modernisation has come to the classical dance."