FESTIVALS & SEMINARS
DETAILS OF FESTIVALS AND PROGRAMMES ORGANISED BY SMT. MEERA DAS
GUNJAN DANCE AND MUSIC FESTIVAL
Since 1996 Smt Meera Das has been conducting a three days Classical Dance and Music Festival in the historic city of Cuttack, the epicenter of culture in Odisha. The programs have been graced by countless dignitaries from various states, Heads of states and established personalities from different walks of life. Along with the students of Gunjan, artists of national and international repute have participated in these festivals. The festivals are known for the splendor and gorgeousness of the performance and recitals.
GUNJAN SANDHYA
In 2012 Smt. Meera Das started organizing Gunjan Sandhya in different areas to globalize the beauty of Odissi. Every art evolves and the improvisation in the art, yet providing its originality and purity is a challenge to all the experts. Meera has been at the forefront of this onerous task, and the Gunjan Sandhya is one such event where such recitals are showcased. This event establishes the fact that the art has no boundaries but as it is a classical dance form we should have discipline and grammar as our core strength.
WORLD DANCE DAY
Dance has no language, has no boundaries and is a unifying force that binds the whole world. Every population, every tribe, irrespective of their origin or nationality, has its own dance form. In 2015 with the leadership of Smt. Meera Das, Gunjan celebrates World Dance Day where young and aspiring dancers from all over perform in the amphitheater at Gunjan before a selected audience.
NABA GUNJAN
It is a festival for encouragement of upcoming promising young dancers. This is only one festival in the silver city of Cuttack which encourages young promising artist. It is a festival in which new upcoming faces are given an opportunity to showcase their talent. Not only that the unique part of this festival is the senior most dancers of Gunjan Dance Academy organize and look after of everything of the festival. The idea behind it that in future they will be self sufficient to organize festivals by themselves. This festival started in the year 2017.
SUMMER WORKSHOPS
In the workshops, Meera invites dancers of different styles and forms from all over the country as well as overseas to conduct special training to the participants. This provides a platform for assimilation of different dance forms. Furthermore, professionals from complementary fields like music, yoga, theatre, kalaripattu (martial arts) etc are also invited where fusion of different arts occur. She also gets invitations to conducts workshop worldwide online and offline to teach new dance choreographies to dancers from different institutions.
LECTURE DEMONSTRATIONS
Meera with her senior disciples conduct lecture demonstrations for various educational institutions and private organizations to spread and popularize Odissi Dance form by demonstrating dance pieces with a proper and interesting explanation to make aware and nurture the interest among them for this dance form.
SEMINARS
Apart from regular performances every year Meera thinks some intellectual churning on Odissi. Since the Seminar is intended to provide a platform for exchange of ideas on Odissi Dance and related issues, she believes that it will provide an enriching experience and unique opportunity for all the participants. The Seminar brings together eminent speakers from the field Odissi dance and distinguished researchers, seniors and students from different academies across India. A thought-provoking seminar helps artistes with a larger vision of what we do and why we do it , the reasons, historical/political causes and its present implications on the everyday practice of our art form.