Workshop with Ileana Citaristi
15-18/05/2023, Nuovo Teatro Ateneo at Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5
The workshop includes the teaching and the practice of basic steps (chari-s), body movements typical of this style in coordination with simple rhythmic patterns. Besides there will be an analysis of a brief poetical text and a demonstration of how to visualize it through the hand gestures and visual expressions of the dance vocabulary.
Workshop schedule
Monday, 15 May, h 10-14
Tuesday, 16 May, h 11-16
Wednesday, 17 May, h 10-14
Thursday, 18 May, h 13-16
Italian by birth, Padmashree Dr Ileana Citaristi holds a Doctorate in Philosophy with a thesis on ‘Psychoanalysis and eastern mythology’. She has come to Indian dance after years of experience in the traditional as well as experimental theatre in Europe.
Ileana has been living in Odisha, India, since the year 1979 in close contact with the people, their language and culture. Her mentor in the Odissi dance style is the renown Guru, Padma Vibhushan Kelucharan Mohapatra. She is equally at home with the different martial postures of the Chhau dance of Mayurbhanji which she has learnt under the guidance of Guru Shri Hari Nayak, obtaining the title of ‘Acharya’ in 1985 from the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalya of Bhubaneswar in Odisha.
Her contributions, besides the many performances and lecture-demonstrations given in all the major centres in India, include articles on Odia culture published in Indian and foreign magazines, research work for film-documentaries on Odissi and Chhau dances and practical dance workshops for dancers and theatre workers which she regularly conducts under invitation by different institutions in India and abroad. She has given performances in all the major dance festivals in India as well as in Italy, Argentina, Poland, France, Germany. Holland, Denmark, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, USA, UK, Australia, Israel, Spain, Poland, South Korea, Canada, Peru and Portugal.
She is known for her experiments in Odissi and Chhau and for her innovative choreographies dealing with traditional as well as unconventional themes. In Mayurbhanji Chhau her compositions include the Greek myth Echo and Narcissus, which was a revelation at the East-West Dance Encounter held in Bombay in April 1985, The Wreck (1988), Icarus (1991), Pancha Bhuta (1996), The Journey (1998), Images of Change (2000), Surya Devata (2001), Jarjara (2003) and Still I Rise (2005).
Some of the major compositions in Odissi are the ballet Maya Darpana premiered at Nehru Centre in Bombay in April 1993, Dasa Mahavidya (1999), Ganga Yamuna (2005), ‘Exploration and Tantra (2006), Saraha, Bolero and Rhydhum (2007), Mahanadi…and The River Flows and Sparsh (2008), Bhagavad Gita and Belaboli Pallavi (2009), Karuna (2010), Maana Bhanjana (2011), Kaala-Timebound (2012), Gaia-Mother Earth (2013), Siddhartha (2014), Akshara (2016), Refugee (2018), Meghadootam (2019) and Suta-The Thread (2021).
Ileana is a Top- Grade artist from Doordarshan and she is empanelled as Outstanding Artist in ICCR. She has been awarded the prestigious title Leonide Massine for the Art of Dance in Italy in September 1992 and the Raseshwar award by the Sur Singar Sansad, Bombay, in December 1994. In May 1996 she won the National Award for best choreography for her dance direction to the Bengali film ‘Yugant’ directed by Aparna Sen. In 2009 she has received the Pandit Jasraj Award from the Rotary Club of Hyderabad and the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity from President of Italy and in 2016 the NALCO Kharavela Award for her role as distinguished guru in Odissi dance.
She has conducted a research on the Martial Art of Orissa under the aegis of the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts in 1991 and in 1996 she has been granted a senior Fellowship by the Dept. of Culture, Government of India, for writing a book on Kelucharan Mohapatra’s life. The book titled The making of a guru; Kelucharan Mohapatra his life and times has been published by Manohar and released in New Delhi, in April 2001. She has also authored the books Traditional Martial Practices in Odisha which was released in Bhubaneswar in September 2012, My Journey, A Tale of Two Births, her own autobiography, released in New Delhi in 2015, Odissi and the Geeta Govinda and Indian Traditional Martial Dances released in 2022. She has also curated and edited the publication of the original documents of Jayantika translated from Odia into English for the issue of Nartanam (July-September 2018).
In January 2006 she was awarded the title of Padmashree from Government of India for her contribution to Odissi dance. Since 2018 Ileana is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities, Social Science and Management at IIT, Bhubaneswar, where she conducts practical and theoretical Odissi dance classes.
In Bhubaneswar she is imparting training in Odissi and Chhau dances to local as well as visiting students in her own institution Art Vision, founded by her in the year 1995. Quite a few of her students have been granted National scholarship in Dance by the Ministry of Culture and are regularly performing in India and abroad. In 2017 Art Vision repertory has been sponsored by Ministry of Culture to present Odissi in Portugal on the occasion of the 70th year celebration of India Independence.
Through Art Vision Ileana has organised along the years several Festivals unique in concept like the Festival of Films on Performing and Visual Arts which has reached the 6th edition, the Kalinga Mahotsav, a Festival of Martial Dances held in front of the Dheuli stupa at Bhubaneswar yearly since 2003 and Sangam Festival which is held in the month of September yearly since 2005. Through Art Vision she is regularly hosting performances of folk theatre and Odissi dance for visitors and tourists in the mini auditorium situated in her school premises.