Oopali Operajita

Oopalee Operajita (also spelled Oopali Operajita) is a senior advisor to Indian parliamentary and world leaders on public policy and international relations,[1] and classical Odissi and Bharatanatyam dancer[2] and choreographer. She is a former distinguished fellow in the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University,[3][4][5][6] and the chair and founder of the Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition, held annually from 2009-11.[7][5]

Oopalee Operajita
Born
Cuttack, India
EducationCarnegie Mellon University, Dalhousie University, Delhi University, Rishi Valley School
OccupationFormer distinguished fellow, College of Fine Arts Carnegie Mellon University ;

Adviser, international relations and public policy;

Classical Odissi and Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer
Parent(s)Bidhu Bhusan Das
Prabhat Nalini Das
RelativesSarala Devi (paternal great aunt)
Nityanand Kanungo (great uncle)
AwardsList of awards
Websiteoopalioperajita.com

Education

Operajita went to Rishi Valley School at age six, and studied there for nine years, graduating with the GCE 'O' levels (Indian School Certificate). At Rishi Valley School, she studied Bharatanatyam of the Pandanallur style.[8]

She received her higher education at Carnegie Mellon University, USA; Dalhousie University, Canada (where she was a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Fellow); Delhi University; and Utkal University. At Dalhousie University, she wrote her dissertation on Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, with poet and novelist J Andrew Wainwright as a supervisor.

Career

Operajita was a distinguished fellow in the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University where she was appointed by its president Richard Cyert.[7] She is a senior adviser on international relations and public policy to Indian parliamentary leaders.[1]

Over several decades, she has established India and India studies at Carnegie Mellon, starting off in 1990.

Operajita founded a sustainable technology venture competition in 2007, which she named in honor of former US Vice President Al Gore.[9][7] The Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition (AGSTVC) is open to MBA, Science and Technology graduate and final year undergraduates, and was held annually from 2009-2011. It has attracted entries from institutions across India, Bangladesh, and the USA, including Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The first competition, 2009, was held at IIT Kharagpur, which was the official partner. In 2010 and 2011 the competition was at IIT Madras, which was one of its education partners, together with IIM Calcutta.[7][6][10] A team from Bangladesh, and another from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) took first and second prizes in 2011.[11]

Together with her parents, Operajita translated Gopinath Mohanty's Amrutara Santāna into English. The translation, published in 2015, is called, Amrutara Santāna: The Dynasty of The Immortals.[12]

Dance

Odissi

Having trained under Kelucharan Mohapatra and Deba Prasad Das,[13] Operajita has performed[14] worldwide and has been called "the best Odissi interpreter" by dance critic P V Subramaniam (Subbudu) of The Statesman. The New York Times has called her one of Mohapatra's "star pupils."[15] When Mohapatra returned to the performing stage, after a hiatus of twenty years, in the dance drama "Konarka", he cast Operajita to play the female lead opposite him. Operajita studied Odissi for twelve consecutive years with Mohapatra. Earlier, she trained under Guru Deba Prasad Das for five years; and Guru Pankaj Charan Das for two years. Her innovative choreographic pieces for Odissi have been set to music since 1979 by vocalist Pandit Chhannulal Mishra of Varanasi. A winner of many international and national awards for dance, Operajita is also a critic and scholar of the arts.

Operajita belongs to the school of Aesthetics and Art Criticism of Arthur Danto, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and art critic for The Nation. She is the first classical Indian artist to have performed at the Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh.[16] She served as the artistic director and choreographer for a concert India's president hosted for US president Barack Obama in 2010.[17]

Bharatanatyam

Operajita started learning Bharatanatyam, at age six, in the grand Pandanallur style at Rishi Valley School from Guru S. Meenakshi and studied it for nine continuous years. In the early 1980s, she took master lessons in London from B. Ram Gopal who taught her guru, S. Meenakshi.

As a professional classical dancer, she was always cast in the lead role of the dance dramas in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil staged each year under the school's banyan tree for its founder, Jiddu Krishnamurti. The music for these productions was composed by Veena G Visalakshi, a disciple of Vizianagaram Venkataramana Das, and the text was chosen or composed by Pandit Chundi Hanumantharao. Operajita studied the veena for seven years and Carnatic vocal music for nine years with Veena G Visalakshi.[18]

Awards

References
  1. "Concern over healthcare". newindianexpress.com. 7 April 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  2. Staff Reporter (2010-01-14). "American band to feature in Saarang". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  3. "The new India demands that the not-so-veiled Eurocentrism and American-centrism undergo rigorous scrutiny". The Economic Times. Jul 9, 2021. Retrieved 3 Aug 2021.
  4. "Oopalee Operajita". economictimes.com.
  5. "The Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition India". cicerotransnational.com. Prof. Oopali Operajita ... Former Distinguished Faculty Fellow
  6. "IIM Bangalore-IIT Bombay team win first prize at Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition 2009". www.iimb.ac.in. Retrieved 2 Aug 2021. ...a former Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University
  7. University, Carnegie Mellon (30 April 2010). "Operajita (MAPW'95) Works for Global Sustainability - Department of English - Carnegie Mellon University". Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  8. Balasundaram 2012.
  9. "Gear up for Shaastra'10". thehindu.com. 6 September 2010. Archived from the original on 11 September 2010.
  10. "Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation | IIM Calcutta". iimcal.ac.in.
  11. "Green campus: IIT-Madras students show the way!". news18.com. 26 September 2011. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  12. Mahanty, Gopinath (2017). Dynasty of the Immortals. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 978-81-260-4746-8.
  13. ALKA PANDE (2003-05-04). "New Delhi". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 2013-01-25. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  14. "Woods talk and rock". The Hindu. 2010-01-18. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 27 June 2021. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  15. Dunning, Jennifer (1996-09-30). "Birthday Tribute to a Master Teacher of Indian Dance". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
  16. Gupta, Namita (16 October 2016). "Sari tales from Benaras". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  17. "Oopali Operajita (MAPW '95) Plays Key Role in India's Concert for President Obama". Carnegie Mellon University. 9 December 2010. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  18. Balasundaram, S. (2012). Non-guru Guru: My Years with J. Krishnamurti. Edwin House Publishing Company. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-9760006-3-1.
  19. Vranish, Jane (1996-12-29). "A STEP AHEAD ALVIN AILEY WAS A STEP AHEAD IN DANCE". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. ProQuest 391714894. Retrieved 2021-10-09.
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