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INTERVIEWOdissi's Ambassador to Peru - Maria Laura Valdez Usseglio- Shyamhari Chakrae-mail: shyamhari@yahoo.com Photos courtesy: Maria Laura Valdez Usseglio August 18, 2026 In one of the episodes of Mann Ki Baat, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed her contribution for popularising Odissi dance in the South American nation of Peru. "In Peru, Herlinda Gonzales and Maria Valdez are popularising Bharatanatyam and Odissi dance respectively; showing how Indian classical dance is creating waves of popularity in South America," he had mentioned. For Maria Laura Valdez Usseglio, the first and only Odissi dancer from Peru, such an important acknowledgement from the head of a country - that was her home-away-from-home for two decades - has been the ultimate honour that she could have ever aspired for as an Odissi dancer.  Excerpts from the interview: Did you ever dream to be a dancer? No. But I was expected to be a musician as I come from a family of music lovers. My father is a lawyer by profession but he is a western classical musician. My brother is a professional musician in Brazil. I started playing classical piano at the age of five and had my first public performance at seven. As I grew up, I was becoming a professional piano player and training in percussion and singing at the same time. What inspired you to become an Indian classical dancer? Perhaps I was destined to be a dancer. After my schooling, I joined the Faculty of Arts of the San Agustin University in Arequipa where I got many opportunities to perform with the University's Symphony Orchestra and staged a number of piano recitals across my country. Gradually, I got exposed to different arts forms and learnt Afro-Peruvian dance, Belly dance and a bit of Bharatanatyam as well. Thus, I got exposed to Indian classical dances. But why did you choose Odissi as your profession? Though I was trained in music and dance for many years, I was not fully convinced of a career in these forms of music and dance. I was not very sure of what I would do in life until in 2003 I came across a video of Sujata Mohapatra's Odissi performance at a friend's place and instantly got struck by the elegance and charm of the dance form. I fell in love with Odissi and the dancer as well who later became my guru. I dreamt to be an Odissi dancer but there were no Odissi dancer and teacher in my country then.  Maria with Sathya Saibaba How did you get to learn Odissi? It was God's grace that I got an opportunity to visit India in 2005 to perform at Puttaparthi during a three-month tour when I was selected to join the Sai Symphony Orchestra. Renowned musicians from all over the world were part of the orchestra and the concert was held at Prashanti Nilayam, Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh. From there, I headed for Odisha to meet Sujata Mohapatra in Bhubaneswar. I joined Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra's famous Srjan dance institution as a student where I was under guidance of both the gurus - Sujata and Ratikant Mohapatra. I was so happy to be a student of Odissi, finally! I went back to Peru and obtained a student visa to stay in Bhubaneswar for my training in Odissi. When did you have your first stage performance? After a year of training, I got an opportunity to have my debut dance performance as a soloist at the National Odissi Dance and Music Festival of 2007 organised in Bhubaneswar by Government of Odisha. I received a lot of praise for my performance. It boosted up my confidence to take Odissi as my profession. How challenging has it been to be a professional Indian classical dancer of foreign origin? My journey as an Odissi dancer has been an adventure as none in my country knew about it until I took it up as a career. It was rather easier for me to get better performance opportunities and greater appreciation while I was in India. Several opportunities to perform in the land of Odissi apart, I could perform Odissi in Russia, Brazil, Thailand, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. I had special collaborative projects at the Indian Cultural Centres in Moscow, Russia, along with Elena Knyazeva and Irina Komissarova - both disciples of my guru Sujata Mohapatra; in Sao Paulo, Brazil as a solo performer, thanks to Silvana Duarte, former Odissi teacher at the center; in Argentina, thanks to Gungur Arts, I was one of the speakers on Odissi along with my guru Sujata Mohapatra during the 1st International Indian Classical Dances' Congress and I also performed during the Kolkata Book Fair 2014. How is the Odissi scene in Peru now? As the only Odissi dancer trained properly in India for so many years, I always feel responsible for showcasing Odissi dance in the most authentic manner. But as the audiences here are new to the art form, I feel the need to explain things in a way they can relate to. Fortunately, Peruvian ancient culture (pre-Hispanic) has some similarities to Indian culture. So, I can use parallels to explain about what is being represented in Odissi dance. Thanks to the grant given to me by the Ministry of Culture of Government of India and the support of the Indian Embassy in Lima, I am able to organize free lecture demonstrations and workshops; so that more people can experience and appreciate Odissi dance. Also, the Ministry of Culture of Peru is supporting my research work and choreography that involves the unification of Indian and Peruvian ancient culture. It is a hard process to introduce Odissi dance to an audience that is more acquainted with Bollywood dance, the style of Kathak they see in movies, or Bharatanatyam, but I am happy to see how Odissi is getting the recognition and respect it deserves from scholars, other professional dancers from my country and from the new audiences. I am delighted to share with you that my work with Odissi fetched me the Gold Medal of Arequipa, the highest recognition of my city, for my contribution on the field of arts and culture. Since moving back to Peru in 2020, I keep introducing Peruvian, Bolivian and other South American people to Odissi dance while being invited to perform or conduct workshops for different dance institutions internationally, both online and in person.  Could you please elaborate about your research and choreography? My research has been on finding a way to connect with Peruvian audiences who don't have any knowledge in Indian classical dances or culture. I am working on how to unify Indian and Peruvian ancient cultures through art, history, architecture and spirituality. My work was selected nationally as one of the choreographers of the prestigious dance festival 'Danzar El Perú'. I choreographed over the Peruvian poem "La Creación del Mundo" (The Creation of the World) in which I utilized Odissi syntax to represent 11 characters, many of them unique to the Peruvian ancient belief while having adapted the poem's recitation in Spanish with my own voice to fit the Odissi movement patterns and creating a special background music along with Pedro Rodríguez that included Indian and Peruvian patterns. This type of work has been really successful on creating respect and curiosity for pure Odissi among other dance and drama maestros and practitioners, so also the general audiences in the country. Following this creative work and after a national competition held among renowned choreographers and dancers of Peru, the Peruvian Ministry of Culture has given me a grant to create more repertoire that involves the unification of Peruvian and Indian culture, arts and traditions. This new piece is called Yachay which means wisdom in Peruvian ancient language 'quechua' and promotes respect to the ancient traditions of healing the body and soul with plants which nowadays are over commercialized in India and in Perú bringing corruption and disrespect to the wisdom of the ancient cultures. This piece will be co-choreographed with senior Peruvian Kathak dancer Verónica Simas de Souza, disciple of Guru Sunayana Hazarilal. Dance apart, what else in India did touch you? India will always be considered as my home where I learnt so many important lessons though all the experiences I had during my 14 years over there. It's the place where I had the chance to practice deeply my devotion and self-awareness. I feel very lucky I have been able to grow up somehow there as I came when I was just 19 and returned to Peru as an adult. The ancient knowledge system that is part of Indian culture, the human values and the goodness and kindness of the people I met there are something that moulded my mindset, touched my soul and heart deeply and something that will accompany me throughout my life. I have spent the best years of my life in India, not only working in the art form I love, but also on all levels of what self-realisation means.  A former journalist with The Indian Express and The Hindu, Shyamhari Chakra is a Delhi-based freelancer who writes on dance. Post your comments Please provide your name when you use the Anonymous / blog profiles to post a comment. All appropriate comments posted with name in the blog will be featured in the site. |
