GUWAHATI, Jan 9 - She is the first Masters degree holder in Sattriya, achieving the feat from Paris University much before Dibrugarh University rolled out its first batch of postgraduates in this performing art. She is currently pursuing her PhD from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and her thesis relates to Dasa Avatar (ten avatars of Vishnu), mythology and Sattriya dance form. And of late, 32-year-old Mexican danseuse Falfan Brizuela Olivia Betzabel has opened a Sattriya centre in her home town Leon, for training children in the classical dance.
�I opened this centre in September last and I already have five children trainees, mostly girls. I hope to get more in days to come,� Betzabel, who is currently in Guwahati as part of a 12-member theatre group from Paris who are staging the ankiya bhaona (religious ballads in classical dance form) Ram Bijoy in Spanish at the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalashetra, told The Assam Tribune.
Betzabel was first attracted to the Sattriya dance form in 2010 when she had attended a workshop conducted by Sattriya exponent Dr Bhabananda Barbayan of North Kamalabari Sattra in France. Betzabel is doing her PhD under Dr Barbayan.
�I decided to get more involved in the art form... it gives you a divine feeling that goes deep inside. We don�t have this kind of classical dance forms in Mexico... There it is mostly folk and Salsa kinds,� she said.
She did her Masters in Sattriya from Paris University, where Dr Barbayan is a visiting faculty, in 2013.
Asked how the people in her country appreciate the dance form, she said, �You know, for us India is the mama (mother) of the human race. The art forms of India, the yoga, etc., have a special place among the people in Mexico as it gives them a way to find their spiritual self.�
The 12-member theatre group, comprising artistes from Portugal, Germany, Spain, England, Belgium and Colombia, enthralled a large crowd here last evening staging the two-hour ankiya bhaona penned by the 15th century Vaishnavite scholar Srimanta Sankaradeva.
Betzabel has translated the play into Spanish. The play, originally in Brajawali language, is being presented with Spanish dialogues in the Sattriya dance form. The theatre group is being assisted by a gayan-bayan troupe from Majuli.
Dr Barbayan is leading the efforts to stage the play being organised by the Kalashetra. �The performers from overseas were learners of Sattriya dance in their respective countries. I had come across them while in those countries as visiting faculty for some universities there or while conducting workshops with leading theatre groups,� he said.
Two French brothers are in important roles in the play, one of them, Mattis Dalton, performing as the sutradhar (narrator).
The play is being staged as part of the three-day second edition of the Srimanta Sankaradeva International Festival here, which concludes tomorrow.
The first edition of the festival had witnessed the performance of another popular ankiya bhaona, Parijat Haran in French.