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.