Special features of the organization
Ravan Chhaya , the shadow puppet theater of Orissa survives only i one village i.e Odash in the district of Angul. The tradition is being maintained by the Ravan Chhaya Natya Sansada Odash which is a registered cultural society and it has devoted itself for the preservation and promotion of the rare act of Orssa . it maintains a full repertory grup of performances and imparts training to youngsters in puppet making, manipulation techniques and music. the repertory group now performance with two sets of puppets, the first which are designed and cut according to the old traditional style and the second with puppets designed and cut on the model of traditional patta painting of Puri. Besides imparting training , the sansad is also undertaking new productions at lest two productions every year and putting them of all over the state of Orissa cities like New Delhi, Kolkata , Bangalor , Pondicherry , Mumbai, Luckhnow , Bhubaneswar ,Udayapur (Rajasthan) , Dharamastala , Karnataka , where performances have been highly acclaimed. The sansada has also put up performances abroad in South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia being sponsored by the Indian Council for cultural relations , New Delhi in 2003. The sansada has been regularly taking part in the National puppet festival in organised by Sangita Nataka Akademi , New Dehli, the work shops organised by centre of cultural resources and training New Delhi and the programmes organised by EZCC, Kolkata. The two pioneer gurus of the sansad have been bestowed with central sangeet nataka Academy award for outstanding contribution to the Indian culture specially for the improvement of Ravan chhaya of Orissa. Guru Kathinanda Das has been bested with the central academi award in 1978 and Guru Kolha Chara Sahoo has been bestowed with Orissa Sangeeta Nataka Accademy award in 1997 and the central Sangeet Nataka Academy award in 1999. The sansada has a number of themes for presentation of shadow puppet show.The important themes among them are The Ramayan, Pranaya Ballari, Living in the bad company , tuan and tuin upakhayan , Kanchi Avijana , Karna Badha, Menance of wine addiction and trees plantation . The sansad has framed courses of suites for imparting training the youngsters. it has created cultural milieu for creative interaction of the artists. The sansada has not only taken steps to sustain the rare traditional art but also has also created and launched several steps to uplift the folk and tribal art of Orissa.
