3rd edition of Ashtapadi Festival - Dr Sunil Kothari

Now in its 3rd edition, Ashtapadi Festival of dance featuring classic, recent and new choreography of Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda (March 9 & 10) at the Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi, received a rousing reception. Not a seat was vacant and the rasikas stood on the side and sat on the gangway. It was presented by the Sri Geetagovinda Pratishthan, Puducherry, established by scholar and cultural organizer late Dr. Raghunath Pani in 2001 to propagate Indian and Odishan culture. His younger brother, the noted scholar and musicologist, Dr. Subas Pani, who has brought out Cds of all the ashtapadis of the Gita Govinda as Sampoorna Geetagovinda, presented during two former editions of the festival, new choreography to the songs of Gita Govinda in Odissi.
This year in the third edition, the festival expanded its scope to feature the Gita Govinda in major classical dance forms of India. Of the twenty four songs, thirteen songs were presented in four dance forms - Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi and Mohiniattam. Of these, eight dance numbers were specially choreographed in these four forms and were presented for the first time. Dr. Subas Pani wears many hats including that of an author, translator, composer, scholar with research interests in India’s cultural heritage, Jagannatha and Jayadeva.  As a creative director of the festival, he had curated the entire festival along with his daughter Sanhati Pani, the festival director.

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