Upasana,  under the direction of Mouli Pal presented “Vasant Vilas” featuring some of the fine choreographic works in the Odissi style of Pal’s legendary Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra on Sunday, March 30, 2008 at the at the  Rogers Center for the Performing Arts at the Merrimack College in North Andover.  The event was a fundraiser for Akshaya Patra which runs the largest NGO run midday meal in the world. Malcolm  Rogers who is the Ann and Graham Gund Director at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston was the guest of honor for the evening.

The evening opened with a welcome by Saloni Fadia who is the Chair of the Boston Champion Circle for Akshaya Patra. Desh Deshpande who is the Chair of the Akshaya Patra USA Board described this wonderful organization. Jaishree and I like to support programs which with the addition of technical innovation can be replicated and scaled to solve large scale problems. Akshaya Patra is a pioneer in conceiving and setting up intelligently engineered kitchens that can prepare 100,000 meals in less than six hours thus allowing them to provide nearly a million nutritional meals a day” said Desh.

In the first half the dancers presented Mangalacharan, Batu and Jugmadadwa Pallavi.  Dancers Mouli Pal, Melissa Huser, Monishita Ray, Maalika Banerjee, Devika Banerjee, Mita Banerjee, Veda Shastri, Jayashree Mohapatra and Anindita Mohapatra did a wonderful job bringing to life these traditional compositions. The music for the Jugmadadwa Pallavi by Raghunath Panigrahi was mesmerizing and Mouli Pal’s dancing did justice to the piece.  Jayashree Mohapatra, a dancer teacher who is very actively engaged in community service also made a fine presentation of Guruji’s creations.

In the second half the dancers presented Vasant Pallavi, Vasante Vasanti, Dasavatar and Mokasha.   The combination of inspired choreography set to the Jayadevas’s poetry which is arguably some of the finest works of Sanskrit literature set to great music makes Guruji’s works a timeless classic.

This was the first time that a full-fledged Odissi recital was seen in the Boston area. Mouli Pal and the dancers are to be commended on the effort.  The line choreography was very well done. Tanya Palit, Shakti Nochur and Sutanuka Basu served as announcers and did a fine job. The professional nature of the program with excellent announcers and lovely backdrop slide made for a very pleasant experience. The chaos caused by tiny tots who were let loose for a short time on stage added to the color of the program and was appropriate considering that the event was a fundraiser for an organization dedicated to feeding children.

Meera Rajagopal and Nimesha Seth who chaired this event were responsible for its successful execution.  At the end Desh acknowledged one important donor to Akshaya Patra. Shyam Venkataramani gave a $1000 to this cause. Considering he was only eight and he gave all the money he received for his Upanayanam to this worthy cause made him an important contributor.
To learn more about Akshaya Patra , please check out their website at http://www.akshayapatra.org

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