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Kalasri Chitralekha Patnaik | She is an outstanding proponent
of Odissi Nrutya. In 1955, she graduated from the Kalamandir
Dance Institute of Cuttack, Orissa, where she learned under the
late Guru Sri Mahadev Rout and the late Guru Sri Battakrushna
Sena. She holds a bachelors of Arts degree from the National
Music Association of Cuttack, Orissa, and a bachelor's degree
in Sanskrit and Economics from Utkal University.
Chitralekha is one of the very
few living Odissi dancers who learned directly from all three
'Fathers of Odissi': the late Padmasri Pankaj Charan Das, the
late Padmabibhushan Kelucharan Mohapatra and the late Guru Sri
Deba Prasad Das.
She is also one of the single
greatest contributors to the popularization of Odissi in North
America, both through her own teaching and performance activities
and through her sponsorship of her renowned colleague, Padmasri
Gangadhar Pradham.
She began performing across
North America in 1972 and has been teaching dance since 1975.
In 1980, she founded the Chitralekha Dance Academy to expound
and propagate Odissi to a new generation of artists. She had
choreographed many original works within the traditional discipline
as well as semi-classical works and various other farmaish items
from different parts of India.
She was awarded the title of
Kalasri by the Orissa Society of the Americas in 1992. In 1994,
she co-founded Chitralekha Odissi Dance Creations Incorporated
with her children, Ellora
and Devraj.
Chitralekha believes strongly
in the inter-connectedness of life and art and has devoted her
life to the preservation, teaching and dissemination of Odissi
dance.
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