Dancers of all ages from across the state will come to Texas A&M on Feb. 15 to showcase an Indian classical dance form called Odissi.
The convention, titled “The Fourth North American Odissi Convention,” will be dedicated to an Aggie engineering student critically injured in a car accident in November.
A donation box will be set up at the event to help raise money for Akshay Jain, the Texas A&M engineering student who was injured on Nov. 30 riding back to campus with four other students. Jain and the other four students are India natives.
Aparupa Chatterjee, agricultural research assistant and local Odissi Instructor, said Odissi is a classical Indian dance form that generates from the state of Odisha in India.
Chatterjee said the event will feature Ratikant Mohapatra, the son of the founder of the dance form and Chatterjee’s own instructor, as well as Odissi troupes from all over the state and other classical Indian dance style performers from as far as New York.
Chatterjee said the event began in 2012, keeping in mind the multicultural exchange through Odissi.
“As I have taught all these years at A&M, I have found that when we put up good costumes and dances on stage that it really attracts domestic and international students and then they want to come and learn,” Chatterjee said. “This way they then know the tradition of Odissi or the tradition of Indian dances from India, which is a very pure tradition.”
Chatterjee teaches around 50 students of all ages from Bryan-College Station.
Divya Chowdhary, finance senior, said some of the Odissi pieces are pure dance while some involve telling a story through movements.“Every time you’re on stage you’re in a different mood and portraying the story in a different way, so there is a lot of creativity to it and a lot of expression,” Chowdary said.
Chowdhary, who will graduate in May, will also be graduating as a student of Odissi. Chowdhary said she will be moving to New York City and will continue to teach and perform Odissi.
Chatterjee and her students put on various events and workshops throughout the year ranging in size. The most recent show they put on was an audition for Season 10 of America’s Got Talent.
Monday is the last day to buy tickets. For more information, contact Aparupa Chatterjee at [email protected] or call (979) 492-1751.