Guru Harekrushna Behera College of Art &Culture

About Institution

Guru Harekrushna Behera College of Art and Culture,Balasore, a pioneer Cultural institution of the state imparting Orissan Music,Dance And Cultureto the art lovers.The institution is established in 1997 and got registeredon 9th November 1999.The institution undoubtedly owes its existanceof Eminent Odissi Maestro Guru Harekrushna Behera,who has been involved in teeching of odissi Dance ever since 1954.The fast and foremost institution of the Balasore district has been permitted byDept. of Culture and Higher Education,Govt. of Orissa.
About Guru Harekrushna Behera
Guru Shri Hare Krishna Behera, a well-known Odissi exponent and its Guru, can justifiably lay claim to many honours. But foremost among these would be in being the pioneer of bringing Odissi out of the geographical confines of Orissa and unleashing its creative muse to a wider audience than hitherto enjoyed.
Guru Shri Hare Krishna Behera was born in the village of Buani in the district of Balasore, Orissa. From a very early age he was attracted to the finer nuances of the Odissi dance form, and to
Nurture that attraction; he successively initiated himself as disciple to Shri Ramhari Behera, Shri Shriram Chandra Dey and Shri Ramchandra Mahapatra. He learned the Gotipua and Mahari style of Odissi from thgese gurus apart from learning Champu, Chhanda Tabla, and contemporary dances like Bhajan and Chhota Khayal.
His attraction towards the dance from was evident in his adolescence when, at the age of six, he joined the ‘akhada’ parties in his village. Akhada party was a traditional narrative that used elaborate drama and song sequence to tell stories. Such was his forte in this form that he was invited to teach and direct akhada parties in neighbouring villages. Yet his quest for continued growth in education and art remained unfulfilled.
Towards fulfilling these ambitions in part, he came to Balasore in 1952, where he joined the Nritya Sangeet Kala Mandir as a dance teacher. In 1957, he joined the Kala Vikash Kendra to pursue his education. Here under the watchful tutelage of Guru Keli Charan Mahapatra, his mastery of the dance from flowered. During the same time, he joined “Jayantika”, which was a conflation of Gurus, scholars and students of the art form under one roof committed to evolve Odissi with a classical character.