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Young Gotipua dancers from Puri enthral Capital

Gotipua dates back to 17th century, when young boys dressed as girls danced in the Jagannath Temple, revelling in the love of God

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The Puri group is in Delhi to perform at the three-day Natya Ballet Dance Festival
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All of 11, and flexing and stretching with an ease that defies physical laws, Umesh Kumar seems to have come straight out of Fantastic Four. His friend Mohan, 8, smiles approvingly as he practices his own moves in a corner. These two, along with 16 other children, are practising Gotipua, a traditional Oriya dance form meaning 'Single boy'. The group is in Delhi to perform at the three-day Natya Ballet Dance Festival, which started on Thursday.

Gotipua dates back to 17th century, when young boys dressed as girls danced in the Jagannath Temple, revelling in the love of God. These young devotees then graduated to Odissi dance and continued to appease Lord Krishna through art.

In an age when school education is all about making kids career-ready, Nakshatra Gurukul in Puri is taking forward this very Goti Pua legacy, also resurrecting the ancient guru-shishya tradition in the process. Run by Bijay Sahu, a trained Odissi dancer himself, the school in Puri is one of the few where kids as young as three enroll to live with the guru and his wife, and learn Gotipua.

Though it sounds like a boarding school, Sahu insists the Gurukul is anything but. The students follow a strict regime of training coupled with academics, which starts at 4 in the morning.

After massaging their bodies with sesame oil to maintain softness in bones for optimum agility, the kids work towards becoming more nimble through a two-hour session involving yoga, acrobatics and exercise.

"All students attend the nearby government school. There is no loss of academics. We want them to study as well," says Sahu. After completing the homework and indulging in other means of recreation, the day finishes at 10pm with a two-hour practice session.

With hardly any help from the government, Sahu has been running the show all by himself by funding the Gurukul from the performance earnings. "Right from cleaning the children's rooms to cooking for them and washing their clothes, I do it on my own. For the last two years, since I got married, I have got a helping hand in my wife," he shares, adding that most kids coming to his Gurukul hailed from rural background.

According to Sahu, those belonging to economically weaker section find his Gurukul the best way to provide education, food and direction to their children, who would otherwise go rogue in the absence of good facilities.

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