MANUAL-1
Particulars of Organization, Functions & Duties
[Section-4 (1) (b) (i)]
Odissi Research Centre was initially set up as an autonomous institute under the Department of Tourism and Culture, Government of Odisha in July 1986. The sole objective of the Centre is conducting research in field of Odissi Dance and Music, promoting and propagating the said art form. The Hon'ble Chief Minister of Odisha is the Chairman of the Centre.
Recently, the name has been changed to "Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre", as a token of honour to the Late Guru who had devoted his entire life for establishing this dance form as a Classical one as well as made it popular all over the world and brought new experimentation in this dance form.
The main objective of the Centre:-
-
Replenishment and expansion of the Repertoire of Odissi dance & music.
-
Documentation through video recording and cinematic photography.
-
Codification through notating dance.
-
Dissemination of such innovation through workshop and seminar to establish Odissi dance within and outside the State.
The Archive
One of the major attractions of Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre is its archive. Over the years it has gained increasing importance as it has preserved for the posterity some rarest collections such as CDs and Cassettes of all the seminars, workshops, lecture- demos, debates and discussions conducted by Odissi Research Centre till date, of all the major dance and music festivals (such as Konark Dance Festival, Mukteswar Dance Festival) and such other mega events in their original form.
The materials in the archive include notations of dance items (done by different gurus), audio tapes, CDs, VHS, photographs of the (major and minor) events.
As it is quite essential to conserve and preserve the said assets, the archive updates its methods of preservation (for example: the VHS have been converted into CD format).
There is also one CTV and DVD inside the archive so that research scholars, teachers and trainees can view the works of the maestros as well as their purpose specific items. There is also the provision of audio-visual classes in the archive for the regular trainees where they can view the items with teachers, have open discussions with them, clarify their doubts in a friendly atmosphere.
Publications; Books & Cassettes
In the year 1988 the Centre published the first detailed and systematic teaching manual in the form of an illustrated primer which hs been prescribed in the syllabus of Cornell University of United States of America. This book has been named as "Odissi dance path finder, Part-I" and it has been published both in English and Oriya. Subsequently Odissi dance path finder, Part-II has been published both in English and Oriya and needless to say that they have great demand in the world of Odissi dance.
More than 110 seminars have been organized in the Centre through all these years taking the veteran musicians of Odissi music to give the due place to it in the music map of India and as a result the Centre has published a basic grammar text on Odissi classical music named as "Odissi Raga Sarani".
The Centre has done commendable work on preservation of traditional 'Champu', 'Chhandas', Odissi traditional songs. Three volumes of cassettes containing all the songs of Kishore Chandrananda Champu, the unique lyrics of the great poet Kavisurya Baladev Rath have been released by the Centre, which has touched the hearts of Odissi lovers. To bring the uniformity in singing of these traditional songs, it has also published a book notating the tuning of Champus alongwith two audio cassettes named 'Champu-Sarani'. Traditional popular Odissi songs also have been recorded and which has high demand in the market. To revive the authentic Chhanda bruttas, the Centre has also taken steps and released three volumes of Chhandas selecting the popular lyrics of great poets of Odisha. After conducting a number of Seminars, Odissi .Research Centre recorded the songs and notated them. It also had organized evening of Champu "Champu sandhya" and evening of Chhanda "Chhanda Sandhya" for public views before the recording. Recently a book named "Chhanda Sarani" containing the notation of identified bruttas of Chhanda with its Prabandha has been published, which is ready to be released.
