Sangam: A Diwali Odissi Recital

Celebrate Diwali—The Festival of Lights—with an exceptional evening of Odissi, one of India’s oldest and most sacred dance forms.

Witness mesmerizing performances by Samir Panigrahi and Santosh Ram of India’s renowned Rudrakshya Foundation alongside the talented ensemble of Odissi Vilas from California. This Festival of Lights invites you on a journey through ancient rhythms and timeless traditions, uniting religion, philosophy, and artistry in a deep immersion into the spirit of Diwali.

Steeped in religion and philosophy, Odissi is one of the oldest Indian dance forms, dating back to the 1st and 2nd century BCE. This art form’s graceful and flowing movements have been captured in stone in many temple sculptures throughout Odisha, the southeastern coastal state where it originated.

This evening’s performances will showcase two forms of dance within the Odissi repertoire — Nritta or pure dance, usually a lyrical composition celebrating a season or a mood, and Nritya or expressive dance where the dancers use movement and expression to narrate a story, usually from Hindu mythology.

Samir Kumar Panigrahi and Santosh Ram are award-winning principal dancers with the Bhubaneswar-based disciples of Guru Shree Bichitrananda Swain, founder-director of Rudrakshya Foundation. This fall, they are artists-in-residence with the Bay Area-based nonprofit dance school Odissi Vilas.

The duo will perform Guru Swain’s unique choreographies, which honor the Odissi form and traditions but offer fresh executions of this exquisite and ancient Indian classical dance form.

The dancers from Odissi Vilas—Maureen Nandini Mitra, Gireeja Ranade, Aparna Krishnamoorthy, and Manasi Padhi—are disciples of Guru Shri Vishnu Tattva Das, founder and creative director of Odissi Vilas. While not full-time professional dancers, they have been immersed in Odissi for more than a decade.

They will perform items from the traditional Odissi repertoire associated with the Diwali festival, which signifies a movement from darkness to light.

Location: Dresher Ensemble Studio, 2201 Poplar Street Oakland, CA United States