Performing Arts of Asia & the Middle East: Dance as Fluid Sculpture: The Example of Odissi
Date and Time
November 4, 2006
Event Details
Performance by Oopali Operajita. Virtuoso classical Indian dancer Oopali Operajita has been called “the best Odissi interpreter today” by India’s most respected dance critic, P V Subramanian, (Subbudu), of The Statesman, New Delhi, and “absolute empress of the dance” by Marie Claire, Paris. She was born into a distinguished family in Orissa and began her study of Bharatanatyam at the age of six, with S. Meenakshi and Veena G Visalakshi, in Rishi Valley. Simultaneously, she studied Odissi for five years with Debaprasad Das, and later, for twelve continuous years, with Odissi’s greatest guru, Kelucharan Mohapatra. When Mohapatra returned to performing after a hiatus of twenty years, in the dance-drama Konarka, he cast Operajita in the female lead opposite him. Operajita has performed extensively in India and in several countries abroad. In 1990, she was appointed distinguished Fellow on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University, where, over a period of many years, she created an enduring understanding of India, its complex and rich history, and its myriad cultural and art forms. Operajita’s several international awards include a Canada Council Arts Award, a Senior Performing Arts Fellowship from the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, nominations for an Outstanding Established Artist Award from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and a Harry Schwalb Award for Excellence in the Arts from Pittsburgh Magazine.
A choreographer of eminence, Operajita has contributed significantly to enhancing the Odissi repertoire. She has collaborated with American choreographer Mark Taylor and light artist Seth Riskin, in Pittsburgh, to produce major dance pieces in the early 1990s. A noted scholar and critic of dance and other arts, Operajita earned an MA in English from Delhi University and was a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Fellow at Canada’s Dalhousie University, where she wrote her thesis on Lawrence Durrell under the supervision of celebrated Canadian poet, Andrew Wainwright. She holds an MAPW (the equivalent of an MBA in Writing, Communication Planning and Design), from Carnegie Mellon University.
Operajita has worked with and continues to work as adviser to several of India’s leaders.
A choreographer of eminence, Operajita has contributed significantly to enhancing the Odissi repertoire. She has collaborated with American choreographer Mark Taylor and light artist Seth Riskin, in Pittsburgh, to produce major dance pieces in the early 1990s. A noted scholar and critic of dance and other arts, Operajita earned an MA in English from Delhi University and was a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Fellow at Canada’s Dalhousie University, where she wrote her thesis on Lawrence Durrell under the supervision of celebrated Canadian poet, Andrew Wainwright. She holds an MAPW (the equivalent of an MBA in Writing, Communication Planning and Design), from Carnegie Mellon University.
Operajita has worked with and continues to work as adviser to several of India’s leaders.