Guru Gangadhar Pradhan's
training began at the age of six, where he was given
to the Balunkeswar temple in the village of
Dhimirisena (Puri district, Orissa) to be trained as
a gotipua dancer. The gotipuas are young male dancer
who dress as women and whose history goes back to at
least three hundred years. The main Odissi gurus of
today hail from the gotipua lineage.
Pradhan was trained by eminent
gurus like Banchinidhi Pradhan, Chandrasekhar Patnaik
and Mahadev Raut. He later went on to become a
student of Utkal Sangeet mahavidyala, Bhuvaneswar and
received further training under Pankaj Charan Das,
Deba Prasad Das, Dr.Minati Mishra and Dhirendranath
Patnaik. After his graduation he received advanced
training from Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. He also
received intensive training in mardala, under the
legendary master Singhari Shyam Sundar Kar and Guru
Banamali Maharana. Guru Pradhan is known both
nationally and internationally for his excellent
accompaniment for the famous dancer Late Shrimati
Sanjukta Panigrahi.
Guru Pradhan has founded the
Orissa Dance Academy in Bhubaneswar which imparts
training not only in Odissi dance, but in other forms
of regional dances as well. The Academy organizes and
participates in cultural programs throughout the year
and has given an annual five-day dance festival since
1985. It has several affiliated branches in different
parts of Orissa, India, U.S.A., Canada and
Netherlands, where Guru Pradhan performs periodically
and imparts traning to hundreds of students.
He has trained and guided a
number of well-known accomplished dancers and
teachers, namely, Dipti Sahu, Aruna Mohanty, Minakshi
Behera, Nandita Patnaik, Chapala Mishra, Mamata
Nayak, Sarat Priya Patjoshi, Anita Babu, Kanduri
Charan Behera, Bichitrananda Swain, Manoranjan
Pradhan, Somnath Pradhan, Bibhuti Bhushan
Balabantaray, Ramesh Jena, Sangeeta Hazarika, Ellora
Patnaik and Durga Bor.
Guru Pradhan has started
'Adarsh Utkal', a cultural family for social and
cultural development. But his life's ultimate dream
is the 'Konark Natya Mandap' which began over barren
piece of land in 1978 at Konark and has developed
into a lush haven for art and culture which sponsors
cultural programs on a stage in natural surroundings
throughout the year. The highlight is the annual
five-day festival of music and dance which first
began in 1986 and has since grown in quality and
popularity. Guru Pradhan's main goal is to develop
Konark Natya Mandap anto an international performing
and teaching point for artists from all over the
world and to maintain a Gurukula Ashram there.
Guru Gangadhar Pradhan has to
his credit several choreographies and dance dramas
for both stage and television and may be regarded as
on of the most dedicated masters and dynamic
organizer for proper development of Oriya culture. He
received the State Academy Award in 1993 and the
National Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1998.
