Would you say theres a kind of rivalry between the Deba Prasad gharana & Kelucharan Mohapatra gharana??
Definitely there is a rivalry between the Deba Prasad and the Kelucharan gharana. It’s really not an overt and negative kind of rivalry but there is a certain amount of sibling envy on the part the Deba Prasad practitioners that the Kelucharan Odissi school are thriving while they feel that theirs have somehow missed the boat. Certainly this situation is true outside Orissa! The Kelucharan Odissi fraternity have gotten their act together and flourished all over the world whereas that of the Deba Prasad parampara suffers from a lack of concerted effort and vision to make their presence felt. Generally, there is a lot of in-fightings and the Deba Prasad dancers and teachers are rather fragmented in their efforts to popularise their gharana. Having said that, Malaysia is unique in that the Odissi known here is mainly of the Deba Prasad ‘school.’ It is said that conferences in general do not achieve anything beyond the conference itself…how different has Stirring Odissi been? One can’t r
