Ganjam folk culture at its festive best

Blowing conch shells, 20 folk dancers from Ganjam took part in CWG opening ceremony and won distant hearts

BERHAMPUR: Folk art is on a roll. With cultural festivals being staged all over the state, the spotlight is back on folk artistes. The most sought dance in almost all the festivals is jodi sankh dhwani (twin conch blowing) from Ganjam district. Since blowing of the conch is auspicious at the beginning of any event, all festival committees are inviting conch blowers from Ganjam. Blowing of ‘jodi sankha’ was very much a part of the ‘Rhythm of India’ part of the Common Wealth Games opening ceremony. Besides blowing the twin conch, the blowers, attired in saffron, dance to the rhythm of changu and mahuri. There are around 200 groups comprising more than 1,500 conch blowers. They are also invited to festivals outside the state. "After staging our dances at Keonjhar Mahostav, which kicked off on Tuesday, we will be heading for Delhi on Thursday to participate in another festival," said Tulu Raula of Gayatri Jugala Sankh Dhwani of Tanganapalli village. Besides conch blowing, a dozen-member group from Tanganapalli will stage ranapa, chadeya and dandia, other popular folk dances from Ganjam, at the Mayurbhanj Mahotsav. Members of Subhashree Folk Dance Kala Kendra, Narendrapur, who performed at Paraba, the annual cultural festival of Koraput on Monday, is preparing to go to Delhi to participate at the trade fair in the first week of next month. Apart from Parab, the troupe also showcased its artistry at the Puri Beach Festival, Bargarh Dhanu Yatra, Bolgarh Festival in Nayagarh, Nirakarapur Utsav in the last one month, said its leader Rajendra Patra. Patra, who started his career in folk dance at the age of nine, has performed in eight countries. He has visited Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Dubai in 1995 and in 2000 he went to Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore. “I was very fortunate to have been a part of Bhagaban Sahu’s group for 25 years,” said Patra, who formed his own troupe five years after the death of Bhagaban Sahu. “The activities of the folk artistes in Narendrapur attracted me towards this form of art since my childhood,” said Patra, who is a graduate.Source: Times of India & The Telegraph