Gracing the Mudra Dance Festival 2023 at National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) is Calcutta’s prodigal dancer: Guru Sutapa Talukdar. Sharply attuned to the motifs of Odissi dance, she has also mastered other Indian classical dance forms like – Manipuri, Kathakali, and Mohiniattam. She founded the dance group, Gurukul Society in 1987 on the advice of her late Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra. As diverse aspects of male and female body movements opened before her sight, she developed a profound sense of choreography and plunged Odissi dance to the national front.

At the Mudra Dance Festival, her dance group Gurukul Society is exhibiting a choreography of six dance pieces on this year’s theme ‘Aparajita’ – which stands for the one who didn’t stop till she won. The presentation will showcase the divine flower, Parijat from Devaloka, which essentially represents ‘beauty’. To put it simply, the beauty of the performative arts was synonymous with enchanting flowers from the heavens.