Four-day Europe Odissi Festival held in Rome

For the very first time, a pan-European Odissi Dance Festival is being held spread across two largest European cities. The four-day Europe Odissi Festival began on 21st May at the iconic Garbattela Theatre in Rome, the cultural capital of Europe.

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Manoj Juneja flagged off the mega event at Rome on May 22, Sunday. Several European leaders, parliamentarians, celebrities and diplomats attended the event at Garbattela theatre in Rome.

The festival being held by the Europe-based GCP Performing Arts Centre in association with Odisha-based OYSS is being held at two of Europe’s largest cities & cultural nerve centres, the Italian capital city of Rome & Spanish capital city of Madrid spanning four days. The Indian Embassy in Italy & Spain are supporting partner for the festival.

The festival is being organized under the leadership of UN Diplomat Baisali Mohanty who founded the Oxford Odissi Centre at Oxford University in 2015 and heads the GCP Performing Arts Centre. Well-known Italian dance exponent Silvia Vona who is the Europe Coordinator of GCP Performing Arts is the co-convenor of the festival.

All dance choreographies has been composed on the festival theme ’Art for Peace’ with an underlying message of global peace.

The festival featured live performance by renowned Odissi dancers from both India & Europe including Padma Shri Ileana Citaristi, Guru Rina Jana (Kolkata), Ganga Devi Sheth, Dr Elana Catalano (London), Lipsa Satpathy, Mrittika Barua, Silvia Vona, Baisali Mohanty, Karine Leblanc (France), Shilpa Bertuletti.

Odissi dance workshops were held in day time as part of the festival.