Press
Narthaki 2022
“Dr. Aparupa Chatterjee, one of the leading disciples and a former repertory member of Srjan, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Nrityabasa, trained under the guidance of Guru Ratikant Mohapatra, had formed her reputation in imparting online education for past six years and was already ahead in this game. Aparupa had moved to the USA in 2007 and while completing her PhD at Texas A&M University, had initiated her teaching and performing career. She had by then already established herself as a brilliant soloist in India and continued the same standards in the USA. She regularly invited her gurus Ratikant Mohapatra and Sujata Mohapatra, to train herself and her students every year while they toured the USA or when she toured India.”
The Hindu, 2019
“The ninth edition of the Kelucharan Guna Keertanam festival curated and convened by Dr. Aparupa Chatterjee, artistic director of Odissi Dance Company, and ODC in association with Nalanda Dance Research Centre, was presented at Kanakasabha.
ODC aims at an international cultural exchange and a global arts initiative through encouraging America born Odissi students to bring Odissi dance in the Srjan style back to the Indian community.”
The Battalion, 2015
“In a tribute to Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra, a crowd filled Rudder Forum almost to capacity Sunday for the fourth annual Odissi Dance Show. The event featured Odissi dancers from Texas and New York. Chatterjee and Raghuram said the main concern is for the audience to experience a new genre of dance and to come away with a little bit of knowledge of a different culture. ‘I mean this isn’t religious…I just want the audience to have a good time and learn about the Indian culture,’ Chatterjee said.”
http://www.thebatt.com/life-arts/odissi-show-spotlights-classical-indian-dance/article_6eb75e40-66f6-5828-a9e8-07320401262e.html
“The Odissi Dance Company’s (ODC) performance on October 28, 2017, at the Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Center, Fort Myers, Florida, organized by Raaga FL, moved me because of its enchanting aesthetics: the lovely dancers dressed in gorgeous saris, feet and hands artfully painted, bells clanking as their bodies moved rhythmically, sometimes emphatically, to mesmerizing Indian classical music. Witnessing such beauty-in-motion felt transformative. The eight dances were directed by Dr. Aparupa Chatterjee, the artistic director and leading disciple of Guru Ratikant Mohapatra. After receiving her PhD from Texas A&M University, Dr. Chatterjee founded ODC with the aim of fostering appreciation for Odissi while promoting international cultural exchange by encouraging America-born/resident Indians to bring Odissi following the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra gharana back to the Indian community, following the guru-shishya parampara.” http://www.narthaki.com/info/rev17/rev2142.html
OrissaPost, 2017
“The high point in Chatterjee’s dance career was her choreographic work on Vithala or Vishnu. The devotees of Pandurange, another name for Vithala the merciful one, entreat him to redeem them from the cycle of birth and rebirth. This beautiful lyric is of the abhang genre, which is a form of devotional poetry taken from the works of Sant Namdev, a famous poet of Maharashtra. It was an experimental neo-classical Odissi piece inspired by her guru Ratikant. “
thestatesman.com/supplements/marquee/best-of-both-worlds-2-1484333626.html
“Texas A&M University of Performing Arts and Odissi Dance Company presented Kelucharan Guna Keertanam at Gyan Manch recently. Led by the Odissi exponent, Aparupa Chatterjee, a disciple of Ratikant Mohapatra and the founder of International Institute for Culture and Performing Arts Development, Texas, students from America along with dancers from Calcutta and Bangalore performed at the event. The evening began with an invocation, Swagatam Krishna, by Swati Yarlagadda of the Odissi Dance Company, followed by Vakratunda Mahakaya, a prayer to Lord Ganesh, choreographed by Mohapatra and performed by Rajib Bhattacharya. The recital by Rajashri Praharaj, Mohapatra’s student and a repertory dancer of Srijan, was notable. Divya Srinivasa’s presentation of Jaya Mahesha was confident, while Vande Mataram, performed by the students of the Odissi Dance Company, was lively.”
https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/earnest-efforts/cid/1457069
Telegraph India, 2017
The NY Times, 2015
“Also from Odisha was “Brajaku Chora,” an Odissi dance style. On the one hand, this — danced by Aparupa Chatterjee — was the evening’s most successfully and charmingly communicative number: a two-way dance in which Mother Yashodha tries to lull the prankster child Krishna to sleep while he resists. On the other, this lover of Odissi felt that the dance did least to show us what this genre can achieve in terms of sumptuous shape and plasticity.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/arts/dance/review-at-indian-dance-festival-subtleties-in-the-sway-of-a-torso.html