A ‘sculpturesque dance form’ grateful much of its posture and movements to the beautiful carved sculptures in Konark and Puri temple, originated around the 1st century BC in Orissa, bosoming a very sacred and spiritual aura. In ancient time Odissi dance had a high status and only perform in temples in front of god. The dancers were known as Maharis/ Devdasis. Due to continues invasion from the outside, the dance form was corrupted , it was no more of devotional art to god but leisurely pleasure for the kings. The dance form had two types; one Gotipua tradition and Mahari tradition. Gotipua tradition was the core of Odissi dance, had boys dressing up as women to perform as female character. Odissi dance is now a days reduced to become a merger of the Gotipua and Mahari tradition.
Odissi dance revived in 1950s after it had died around the 20th century. So, it is considered as the most modern of seven classical styles of Indian dance, yet it is the oldest of all. Revival of Odissi dance is possible because of extensive study of literature, poetry, music and sculptures, by three gurus, finally recreated a new form.
Odissi dance has two forms: one is Nritta or non – representational dance and second one is abhinaya or acting where dancers dance in a representational style elegantly demonstrate with symbolic hand gestures and facial expressions to tell a story or theme. One of the favorite tale is the divine love between Radha and lord Krishna. Poem of eight couplets from Jaadeva’s Gita Govindam that has a description of relationship between Radha and Lord Krishna is one of the most used narration in Odissi dance.
Different postures of Odissi dance where body is twisted to form a helix type structure repeatedly use in Odissi dance technique known as tribhangi. Odissi is one of the most difficult dance form to be executed. But it is most lyrical and a paradigm of all dance form.
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