Odissi takes its name from Odisha, on India’s eastern coast. Its look comes from a few principles of stance and movement, and its usual recital order traces to a group of gurus who met in the late 1950s. Knowing both helps you follow a performance.
Two stances and a moving torso
Much of Odissi grows from two positions. Chauka is a square stance with the weight balanced evenly. Tribhanga bends the body at three points, the neck, the torso and the knees. A distinctive feature is the movement of the torso from side to side while the hips stay quiet. The gurus who reshaped the form in the twentieth century drew on Odisha’s temple sculpture and painted scrolls for postures.
Music from Odisha
Odissi is usually danced to music from Odisha, with songs in Odia and Sanskrit. Percussion is often played on the mardala, a barrel drum, with flute, cymbals, and violin or sitar often joining the singer. Abhinaya pieces frequently set ashtapadis from Jayadeva’s twelfth-century Gita Govinda, as well as poems by Odia writers. Guru Mayadhar Raut recalled that the Gita Govinda was not commonly performed before the 1950s and that he was among the first to stage its ashtapadis.
A repertoire agreed in a meeting
In the late 1950s a group of gurus, scholars and supporters formed an association called Jayantika. Its members included Kelucharan Mohapatra, Deba Prasad Das, Mayadhar Raut and Raghunath Dutta. Drawing on the dance of the maharis, women attached to temples, and the gotipuas, boys trained to dance in female roles, they set out to standardize poses and gestures. In July 1959 they agreed on a recital order: mangalacharan, batu, pallavi, abhinaya and moksha.
The agreement did not last. The dancer and scholar Ileana Citaristi, working from Jayantika’s surviving proceedings, notes that Deba Prasad Das and Pankaj Charan Das disputed the version associated with Kelucharan Mohapatra, and that the group’s records end by the mid-1960s. Different lineages still keep their own repertoire and style.
Following a recital
In a typical recital, mangalacharan is an invocation that includes a salutation to the earth. Batu sets out chauka and tribhanga as pure dance. Pallavi elaborates a raga in movement, growing from slow to intricate patterns. Abhinaya tells a story through a sung text. Moksha builds in speed to a climax and a final salutation.
Watch the torso against the steady hips, and listen to how closely the movement follows the song.
For short introductions to Odissi and other forms, see Meet the Art Forms.
Image: Odissi dancer Sujata Mohapatra, 2012. Photo: Mullookkaaran, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
