Kavita Dwibedi is the Founder Director of Odissi Akademi, Delhi. Apart from training young aspirants, Kavita had been organizing an annual two-day festival Jayadeva Utsava in the capital for the last five years comprising a Seminar and Performances on the works of Jayadeva, events which have been lauded by critics and art lovers alike. Odissi Akademi is a prominent cultural institution of the country devoted and committed to the promotion and propagation of Odissi dance and Odissi music in their pure and classical style. The institution was established in 1991 under the guidance of Smt. Kavita Dwibedi, who is the also its Founder, General Secretary and Director. Former Speaker of Orissa Assembly and former Union Minister, the late Shri Braja Mohan Mohanty was the first president of the Akademi. In the year 1997, veteran journalist late Shri Sailen Chatterjee became the president of the Odissi Akademi. Shri Duryodhan Pradhan took over the leadership of the Akademi in February 2001 from him. Like any other young organization, we in Odissi Akademi also have a dream – the dream to put Odissi dance and music at the top in the international cultural arena. The Akademi, since its inception, has been engaged in research in order to add new choreographic compositions in the Odissi repertoire based on the traditional musical forms of Orissa. Apart from conducting Odissi dance classes under the guidance of Smt. Kavita Dwibedi, the Akademi has been organizing Seminars, lec-dems, workshops, dance and music programmes periodically. The Akademi has been organizing Jayadeva Utsav at the national level with the collaboration of Habitat World and Sahitya Akademi to highlight, propagate and popularize the life and work of Shri Jayadeva, one of the greatest poets the country has ever produced. For the last four years we have been holding the Festival in the capital, and it has not only earned a special place in the calendar of Festivals in the country, but has also been widely recognised as one of the most sought after mega cultural events in the Capital. Odissi Akademi is proud to present before you the Mancha Pravesha of Ms. Madina Andassova, an ICCR Scholar from Kazakastan, as the first solo student of the Akademi. Last year the Annual day of the Akademi was celeberated with a performance by the students of the Akademi at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.