Anwesa Mahanta

Belonging to the Vaisnava monastery of Assam, Sattra, Anwesa started her formal lessons in Sattriya from her early childhood under the guidance of the eminent maestro and a Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee Bayanacharya Ghanakanta Bora. Anwesa has been learning, researching and interpreting Sattriya dance, music and theatre since two decades.

Born to Ms. MinatiChoudhury,a noted litterateur of the region who also served in Doordarshan and Prof PradipJyotiMahanta, an erudite scholar in the field of Cultural History of Assam and Northeastern India and currently, Professor and Head in the Dept. of Cultural Studies, Tezpur University.

Anwesa has been pursuing dance, not merely as a pastime but as a chosen path of her growing and devotional journey. During this journey over the years she has been trying with utmost sincerity to enlarge the performance canvas and expand her repertoire constantly drawing resource material from the vast literary corpus of the Vaisnava Renaissance of Assam. She has been giving lecture demonstrations and presented papers in several places and institutions with an aim to reach out to more and more children, scholars and art lovers. The Pragjyoti International Dance Festival, a festival of young classical dancers, first of its kind in Assam, is one of her attempts through KALPA (A Society for Promotion of Literature, Art, Culture and Social Harmony) which allow the young exponents to speak and share their thoughts and ideas through dance and communicate to the youths the relevance of Indian dance in the contemporary world.

She has thus carved a space in the Sattriya Dance world with her understandings, research, interpretations and outstanding performances drawing applause and appreciation from both the media and the art cognoscenti and established an unfailing record of excellence in her performance career. Anwesa is the Jr. Secretary and Festival Director of KALPA ,a Society for Promotion of Literature Art, Culture and Social Harmony and coordinates Pragjyoti International Dance Festival, a Festival of Young Classical Dancers in Guwahati. Since 4 years she has been conducting and directing this International Dance Festival which has earned national and international accolades.

A dedicated and promising young exponent of Sattriya Dance, Anwesa Mahanta has received accolades from the art connoisseurs and scholars for the grace and liveliness of her dance and the expressiveness of her abhinaya.She has been an active performer since 2001, presenting Sattriya in its solo form. Anwesa has also worked on many choreographic presentations of her own under the supervision of her mentor. She has performed extensively across India and also abroad, appearing at many prestigious dance festivals.

2012 -

·         Series of performances in various parts of Goa as part of IRCEN in October, 2012

·         Sattriya Dance Recital at Mysore in Central Institute of Indian Languages in July, 2012

·         Sattriya Dance Evening in Jagannath Temple, New Delhi as a part of Festival of Rath Yatra, June

·         Sattriya Dance Recital at Sikkim Manipal Institute, on the occasion of SPICMACAY’s State Convention, May, 2012

·         Sattriya Recital as a part of the Horizon Series organized by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, in Trivandrum, Kerala, May

·         Sattriya Recital at Kapeeleswar Temple on the occasion of Vasanta Utsav, 2012 in May

·         Sattriya Dance Evening at Payyanur organized by Folkland International Cultural Centre, Payannur, May

·         Evening of Sattriya Dance organized by Public Information Department, Kannur in Kannur Square, Kerala, April

·         Performed Sattriya Dance in Lasya Festival, 2012 in Pilathara, Kerala organized by Lasya School of Fine Arts, Kannur, April

·         Presented Sattriya Dance Recital in Bhubaneswar on the occasion of Vaisakhi Mahotsav, April

·         Series of performances in various parts of Mizoram under IRCEN, February

·         National Programme of Dance telecast on 26^th January, 2012, January

2011 –

·         IRCEN series of programmes in Punjab, October

·         Mydance Festival, Dancing India, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September

·         “Dancing the Divinity” an evening of Sattriya Dance with Anwesa Mahanta ,  India Cultural Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September

·         SPICMACY series with her Adhyapak in Bangalore, September

·         “Parama Prema Rupa” – National Centre for Performing Arts in the series of Umang, Mumbai, August

·         ICCR Horizon Series, in Tezpur University, August

·         Temple Festival Guruvayur Devaswom, Kerala, March

·         SPICMACAY Virasat series with her teacher, Andhra Pradesh, February

·         Nritya Sangam, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Cochin, January

·         National Programme of Dance by Doordarshan Kendra telecast March 3,

2010 –

·         Sattriya Dance Evening of Anwesa Mahanta by Balaji Cultural Trust, Guwahati, December

·         An evening of Sattriya Dance at Thrissur, organized by Thalam Cultural Trust, November

·         Dharini Kalotsav , 2010, Cochin , November 

·         Navarang – An amalgam of Major Indian Dance Styles, Vigyan Bhavan, October

·         National Convention of SPICMACAY at Kanpur, June

·         National Dance Festival in Vizag , May

·         National Dance Festival in Mumbai, May

2009 –

·         Uday Shankar Dance Festival, Kolkata, December

·         Nritya Parva, A festival organized by Sangeet Natak Akademi,  Guwahati, November

·         Avanthika Space for Dance – a 2 day dance festival in Trissur, Kerala, May

·         Fraternity day, an event to mark the celebration of World Dance Day, organized by Prasiddha Foundation in collaboration with Kri Foundation, on 29^th April,2009 , at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, April

·         India International Centre, New Delhi, in March

·         6^th Annual Dance Festival of Impresario India in the series of From the Banks of the Brahmaputra, with her Adhyapak in the India Habitat Centre and the CCRT Auditorum, New Delhi, March, 2009, the India International Centre, New Delhi, March

·         India Habitat Centre under the HCL Concert Series, New Delhi, January

2008 –

·                    SPICMACAY, Virasat series with her Adhyapak in several educational institutions of New Delhi, in November

·                    National Devadasi Dance Festival, Bhubaneswar, in September, 2008

·                    National Convention of SPICMACAY, Kohima, with her Adhyapak, in June,

2007 –

·      National Programme of Dance, Doordarshan, telecast August 26,

·      Nritya Prabha, organized by Directorate of Cultural Affairs, in April

2006 –

·         SPICMACAY programmes with her Adhyapak in different institutions of Guwahati, October

·         University of Madras, Chennai, on the occasion of Professor V.Raghavan Memorial programme, September

·         Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, Bangalore,September,

2005 –

·         Virasat 2005 in different educational institutions at Karnataka, Kerala and New Delhi under the auspices of SPICMACAY in October-November, 2005,

·         Nritya Pratibha, a festival of Indian classical dances for the young dancers by Sangeet Natak Akademi in Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, Chennai in August.

·         Srimanta Foundation for Culture and Society in collaboration with Assam Academy for Cultural Relations, Guwahati in January

2004 –

·         Nimapada Dance Festival, Orissa in December

·         Nritya Parva, a festival of Sattriya dance by Sangeet Natak Akademi in Pragjyotish Kalakendra, Guwahati in November,

·         Doordarshan Kendra, Guwahati in October

·         Maheswar Neog Commemorative Sattriya Dance Recital, District Library, Guwahati, April

·         Navavarsha Mahotsav at Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra, Guwahati in January

2003 –

·         Nritya Parva, Festival of Sattriya Dance of Sangeet Natak Akademi in Rabindra Bhawan, Guwahati in November

·         Nritya Swarn of Sangeet Natak Akademi with her Adhyapak, held at Nehru Centre, Mumbai in November

·         Virasat 2003 with her Adhyapak, in different schools at New Delhi under auspices of SPICMACAY in November,

·         National Symposium of Srimanta Foundation for Culture and Society held at Little Theatre, New Delhi in November

·         Krishna Festival organized by ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) in August

·         Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai on the occasion of Birth Centenary Celebrations of Rukmini Devi on March 29^th

2002 –

·         Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan organized by Karthik Fine Arts Society, Chennai in December

·         Rajah Annamalai Hall organized by Tamil Isai Sangam, Chennai in December 2002

·         India International Centre, New Delhi, October

·         Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards Festival 2002, with her Adhyapak at Guwahati in April

·         India Habitat Centre, New Delhi in February

·         Navvarsh Mahotsav, Sankardeva Kalakshetra, Guwahati in January.

She also presented papers in National and International Seminars and has given lecture demonstrations and on various aspects of Sattriya art and culture, and with ICCR, SPICMACAY, IRCEN, Sahitya Akademi and also with other prestigious organizations in various places of the country and also abroad. She is also invited for workshops to teach and interact with students in various parts of the country

Anwesa achieved many awards, some of which are :-

*Anwesa Mohanta was awarded Scholarship from the Sangeet Natak Akademi under the Project of Support to Sattriya Dance. The program involved advanced training and a research orientation in the field of Sattriya Dance. The 5 years of training under the scholarship scheme are also years of both performance and performance studies on Sattriya Art.

*Awarded ‘A’ grade artist by the Prasar Bharati for her performance in the field of Sattriya.

*Empanelled artist of the ICCR.

*Awarded Kalajeeva Puraskar from Vizag School of Theatre Arts, Vizag.

*Empanelled artist of Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

*Empanelled artist of India International Rural Cultural Centre.

*Awarded Junior Research Fellowship for her doctoral programme in the area of Performing Arts and Oral Tradition in the University of Delhi.