Activities of Aum Arts Dance Academy in Mar 2013

• 5th March: Lecture demonstration at DPS School Bopal
• 10th March: Performance at Somnath Temple
• Aum Arts Dance Academy was invited by the state government to perform at the cultural programme organized in the premises of the famed Somnath Temple at Somnath, Gujarat. The group, under the guidance of Mrs Suprava Mishraperformed on ‘Shivashtakam’, Nabarasa, Geeta govinda and Vaishnavajana. The production was much appreciated by the audience.
• 20th March: Performance “I am a Woman” at Indian World Cultural Forum, New Delhi

Thanks madam, for asking me to write something about my experience in Aum arts and Dance Academy. Yes, Aum arts and Dance Academy, the name is not new to me. I know it when it was in the nursery (Ahmedabad) and then started crawling. When I left Ahmedabad for almost an year , I came to know that it is also started walking slowly and smoothly with its little foot step covering every day some more distance and creating new mile stones.

Now I am back to Ahmedabad and bit surprised rather can say beguiled to see it neither crawling nor walking slowly. Yes, now it is dancing. Starting from steps of chowka and trivanghi to Moksha, it is teaching, practising and performing everything. Furthermore to my immense gratification, today it is neither waiting for Suprava madam nor for me; just starts dancing.

These all can be accredited to Suprava Madam. I don’t know how many sleepless night she had for this institution. Al beit it came across many ups and downs, but madam you stood up with all your patience and hope. Madam we are really obliged near you for all your endeavours and for providing us such a wonderful place where we can nurture our hobby and passion.

Thank You Madam……

Satyapriya Panigrahi

Satyapriya was working with Vikram Sarabhai science center as Head of department of Electronics . Now she is preparing forUPSC exam. She primarily trained in Odissi Dance at Odisha. Now learning from Guru Smt Suprava Mishra.

Finally that day has come

The day for which we were waiting for the last few months, or if I may say for almost a year, had finally arrived. The day we were to leave for Odisha for the Odissi International 2012.
It was our good fortune that under the able guidance of our mentor and teacher Mrs Suprava Mishra we had this opportunity to participate in the Odissi –International-2012. our group was very happy and excited when we were informed about the event.

Gradually we started our preparation for the event. We started by selecting a good song and our teacher choreographed it for us. We were a bit apprehensive about our performance but the blessings of our teacher and parents instilled confidence in us. During our practice our teacher would get angry on us but her scolding only made us more precise and stronger. With the faith our teacher placed in us we were sure to be able to cross any hurdles.

When it was time to leave for Odisha, our excitement knew no bounds and we had already packed 10 days before our departure!! Finally the day of our departure arrived. We reached the Ahmedabad railway station with our parents who were there to encourage us. Soon it was time to leave and our parents bid us good bye and conveyed their blessings. Our teacher had made all the arrangements for our meals. We soon had our dinner and settled for some strategic discussions for the performance. The journey to Odisha was fun filled as we played games in the train and also took many pictures. Some in our group had already been to Odisha and they shared their stories of the place with the rest of us who had never been there before. Unaware, we were all forging life long friendships on the journey. Everybody was eagerly waiting to finally reach Rabindra Mandap, the venue for the Odissi International 2012.

On the next day all woke up very early, refreshed and had our breakfast. The train was about to reach its destination but was running a little behind schedule and patience was reaching its limit. Finally we reached Bhubaneswar.

Every one said that we had successfully cleared the 1st step to our goal. We were not at all tired or stressed from the three days journey, but were very excited. Our lunch was in Iscon temple. We prayed their before lunch which was very delicious. Thereafter we took some rest. In the evening we did rigorous practice to impress everyone with our performance.

Then we all went to Rabindra mandap. The chief guests for the evening Hema Maliniji, some ministers and other VIPs were then honored. Hema Maliniji expressed her heart bound feelings for the audience. We were very happy to see the Hema Maliniji and other dignitaries in the land of Odissi.

The performances for the evening then started and an Odissi dance was presented. The performance was very inspiring. After spending some time at the venue we took our dinner and then returned to the place we were staying. We discussed a bit regarding the next day’s program and went to sleep.

19/12/2012 The special day

There was a different kind of freshness on that day. We had our breakfast and did our practice. Our teacher took all of us to the venue where the program had started since morning but our turn was in evening. Odissi dancers from countries like the UK, Japan, the US, China had arrived there. They were not from Odisha still they could speak Odiya, could understand and perform on Odiya lyrics very beautifully. We were very happy and surprised to see our culture propagated in the whole word. We stayed there till noon and had our lunch and came back for rest.

In the evening we went again to Rabindra Mandap and started getting ready for our performance and also met other participants. Our parents and other relatives helped us in dressing ourselves. We were waiting for our turn as soon as we got ready.

Our song was a very popular Gujarati song “VAISHNAV JANA TO…..” which is composed by Narsinh mehta and was the favorite Bhajan of Gandhiji. They both loved the song and they preached people to implement the values in that song in our lives. It is an inspirational song.

Our heart beats were becoming high as our turn neared. We were very excited and happy to get this opportunity and such a big platform to show our talent but if somebody were to ask us the actually reason of our happiness we would reply that our teacher is one of the best Odissi dancers and also an outstanding teacher. Our excitement had more to do with being able to dance with such a great personality and that we were to share a platform with her.

Finally that moment came and we touching our teacher’s feet and went up the stage. We started our performance and ended it with god’s name.

When our performance was over we were cheered up with a big round of applause. I can truly not explain that time and the moment. We all are happy to receive our participants’ certificate and compliments. All this fame and love we got was due to our teacher. We had gone through that big competition with the help of blessings of our teachers and parents.
Then we returned to our hotel. We are very happy to learning that our teacher also like and loved our performance. We had our return tickets for 20/12/12 so we decided to surf the famous places of Odisha. We enjoyed Odiya food like dahivada, chat, panipudi and many things. It was very yummy. That day our teacher received a call to have a look at the local news papers. Our performance article was issued with a photograph in it. We were very happy with this.

We stated our visit by starting from Lingraj temple. We visited other places like Konark temple, Chilika Lake, Jaganath puri temple Dhauligiri and much more. We ate Mahaprasad in puri temple. It was very holy food. We visited mini orissa in just one day and we also enjoyed the sea shore.

This way we enjoyed and then started to go to the station as we had to board the train. At that time we felt our luggage was heavier than before filled by Odisha’s love and beautiful memories that we were going to take back to our home.

Again we enjoyed journey back to home laughing, singing, playing and we became more close friends than before. We reached Ahmedabad at 22/12/12. We said good byes to all and started towards our own homes back.

It was a very memorable and unforgettable experience and we want to participate again in “ODISSI INTERNATIONAL 2013”.

The article is written by Ms Diptimayee Parida. She had just completed her 12th Science. She is learning Odissi and folk dance of Odisha under Guru Smt Suprava Mishra since last 3 years.