ENAKSHI DAS

ODISSI DANCER

“Mastery over Laykari and sensitive abhinaya are two facets of this talented dancer. Enakshi’s body movements, use of her mudras and her facial expression are beyond comparison.” In her short span of arrival in Canada she has already made her mark by giving performances in the major festivals of Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon.

Enakshi is an established and renowned Odissi dancer in the field of Indian Classical dance from India now settled in Windsor, Canada since 2006. Enakshi cultivated a lifelong devotion to Indian Classical dance starting with Bharatnatyam from the tender age of five and completed her diploma course under the guidance of Thankamuni Kutty in Kalamandalam. She later passionately fell in love with the Odissi dance and learnt this subtle form from Smt. Sharmila Biswas and became a regular repertory member of her Company, performing in her troupe in major roles of Biswas's dance productions. Her distinctive style came from her direct training from Padmavibhusan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra & Guru Ratikant Mohapatra in Srjan, Bhubaneshwar. Her active performance career spans for the last 15 years that includes performing in major festivals in India like Dover Lane Music Conference, Konark Festival, Soorya Festival, Nishagandhi Festival, Deccan Festival, Choreographer of the Millennium, Uday Shankar Dance festivals, Raindrops, Gangamahautsav etc. and in neighbouring countries like US, Canada, Tokyo, Bangladesh, UK, Bangkok and others. She is an Empaneled artiste of India Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Sangeet Natak Academy (SNA) and East Zone Cultural Centre (EZCC). Enakshi has the honour to receive “Shingar Mani” title from Sur Singar Samsad in Mumbai, India. She is also the recipient of fellowship for Access and Career Development grant from Ontario Arts Council, Canada.

Enakshi has successfully launched her two major dance productions in Canada. Her first creation, CROSSROADS (2009), 1 hour and 30-minute Indian classical dance duet that features super 8mm film projections by Martin Lemieux and lighting by Caroline Nadeau. CROSSROADS has equally benefited by the expertise of Kathak interpretation by Montreal based dancer Sudeshna Maulik along with Odissi interpretation by Enakshi. This was launched in Montreal with the support of Quebec Art Council and Gesu and was well received by the mass and media.

Her next creation was SAMYUKTA (2010) showing a unique blending of three dance forms Bharatnatyam, Kathak and Odissi. This was presented in different places of Canada along with the invited artistes from India.

At present Enakshi is the Artistic Director of her dance institution 'Mrudanga - Centre for Performing Arts' and is involved in the training of a new generation of dancers. Mrudanga holds Annual show every year with the students and with the invited artistes from overseas.

Please visit at www.enakshi.org / www.mrudanga.com