Martha Graham, the great American modern dancer and choreographer, had once said ‘Dance is the hidden language of the soul’ and this is exactly what Padmashree Dr Ileana Citaristi truly believes in.
Italian by birth, Dr. Ileana’s passion for dancing started when she began to learn some movements from Indian dance vocabulary to adopt in her theatre work. “I did not know that after learning Odissi I would leave theatre and immerse myself totally in this dance form,” she says with a smile.
Dr. Ileana came to India in 1979 and started getting training in the Odissi dance style from the renowned Guru, Padma Vibhushan Kelucharan Mohapatra.
“He was a tough teacher but I was greedy for knowledge,” says Dr. Ileana. She gave her first solo performance in April 1981, two years after she began learning. “It was a full performance, with guruji dressing me up because I didn’t know what to do, and playing the pakhavaj for me,” she recalls.
She learnt Mayurbhanj Chhau under the guidance of Guru Hari Nayak, obtaining the title of ‘Acharya’ from the Sangeet Mahavidyalya of Bhubaneswar in Orissa.
“Odissi and Chhau are quite different in technique but they have a common cultural context. I find them complementary to each other and I enjoy both of them in equal measure,” says Dr. Ileana.
Eager to do something different in her dance forms, Dr. Ileana started experimenting in her dances. In 1985, she presented Chhau with the theme of Echo and Narcissus, a greek myth rendered with electronic music. Th
ere were rave reviews and her dance form was widely acclaimed. However, experimenting with traditional Odissi was not so easy.
“I was criticised for my contemporary production, Maya Darpan in 1994, which had unconventional movements and approach. But, you have to be fearless in art. Once you absorb the aesthetic form, you are not terrified to step out of conventions,” she says with a wink.
Gradually, Dr. Ileana’s innovations, dancing moves and techniques started gaining appreciation world wide. Offers from Bollywood too started pouring in. Dr. Ileana did her first choreography for film ‘Juganth’ by Aparna Sen. She used Odissi and Chhau movements in the film.
“In the editing process a lot of the choreographies got deleted and I was a little disappointed for that,” she says. Dr. Ileana, however, got the National Award for best choreography for the film.
The second was for “Minaxi-a tale of three cities” by M F Hussein. “Here I used Kalarippayattu. Chhau and Kathak. It was a wonderful experience working with Santosh Sivan with music by R Raman and I was very happy with the editing result. The third was for “Abare aranye” by Gautam Goshe,” she adds.
A top- grade artist from Doordarshan, Dr. Ileana is empanelled as ‘outstanding artist’ in ICCR. She was 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 2009 she 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.
Author of several books, Ileana, however feels that her best acclaimed book is ‘The making of a guru; kelucharan Mohapatra , his life and times”.
“It has been very much appreciated as it is the only book on his life and on the history of the formative years of the Odissi dance.”
“The book on the martial arts of Odisha is my homage to the Paiks and their determination to keep alive their traditions in spite of all the odds,” she says.
Her third book is her autobiography “My journey, a tale of two births” which was released last year.
In January 2006, Ileana was awarded the title of Padmashree from Government of India for her contribution to Odissi dance.
In Bhubaneswar, Dr. Ileana imparts 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. 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 since the year 2005.