MUMBAI, February 8: The tenth Elephanta Festival of dance and music that concluded at the islands late in the night will be remembered for the virtuoso performance by Ileana Citaristi, the Italian-born Odissi danseuse.Ileana enthralled the audience with performances like Pallavi and ashtapadi on Friday, the first day of the two-day festival, organised by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC).
The festival, which proved to be a spectacular event for patrons of dance and music, witnessed performances by some outstanding artistes like kuchipudi dance couple Jayarama and Vanashree Rao and vocalists Pandit Ajay Pohankar and Padma Talwalkar.
On the second day, the Kuchipudi exponents enhanced the dance form's international status. After Dashavataram, depicting the ten incarnations of God Vishnu, the couple performed the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva, followed by Tarangam.
The spectators reached the island after an hour-long journey to the island. Though the first day's turnout was lesscompared to that of last year, this year's festival had an overall good response.
The festival was inaugurated by chief secretary to the state government, P Subramaniam. MTDC managing director A P Sinha was also present on the occasion.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
