bhubaneswar stage is set for konark festival one of the most glamorous and muchawaited classical dance festivals of india to begin from december 1 ten popular indian classical dance troupes from india and abroad will perform at the backdrop of majestic sun temple of konark during the fiveday long dance festivalto attract more foreign tourists to the festival odisha tourism has made some arrangements this year official sources said we have included performances of two foreign dance groups from malaysia who will perform classical indian dance during the festival besides we have ties up with malaysian media houses to make extensive promotion of the festival so that more and more foreign tourists could attend the mega event said tourism director nitin jawalethe dance festival will open with an odissi recital by the dancers of nupur dance academy under the tutelage of niranjan rout and group dance troupe from malaysia the temple of fine arts stage a bharatanatyam recital on the inaugural eveningthe major attraction of the festival will be a performance by malaysiabased odissi dancer ramli ibrahim who will stage his production ganjam on sunday twentyfour member troupe of ibrahims sutra foundation will present the composition inspired by folk dances and music traditions of culturally rich ganjam district of south odisha due to better air connectivity odisha government has been is expecting a rise in tourists from malaysia to attend the festival this year the number of tourists coming to the state from that country has almost doubled since the start of airasia services jawale addedamong others kathak dance group led by rajendra and members of abhinava dance company kuchipudi group led by vanashree rao mohiniattam dance troupe led by bimbabati devi will perform at the festival dancers of kaishiki nrityabhasha an odissi dance institute founded in 1992 in mumbai by odissi danseuse daksha mashruwala and members of diksha manjari dance group formed by dona ganguly will also showcase their productions coinciding with the dance festival international sand art festival will begin at chandrabhaga beach in konark eight international sand sculptors and 62 national artists will exhibit their works in the festival the artists from india will participate in solo duo women and differentlyabled categories of competitions odisha tourism development corporation otdc has designed special tour packages for the festival and visitors can also avail package trips to the jagannath temple raghurajpur craft village and chilika