Odissi

Odissi is a classical dance from Odisha in eastern India, one of the forms recognised as Indian classical dance. Older books spell it Orissi. Dancers work from three base positions: samapada, a straight stance; chauka, a square stance with knees turned out and bent; and tribhanga, an S-curve in which hip, torso and head bend in alternating directions. Other classical forms almost never use this hip deflection.

The dance grew from the maharis, women ritual dancers of the Jagannath temple at Puri, and the gotipuas, boys dressed as girls who danced at festivals and added acrobatics. After a long decline, gurus and scholars meeting as the Jayantika association in Cuttack from the late 1950s rebuilt the form from these traditions, temple sculpture and old treatises.

The live ensemble varies but often includes singers, the mardala or pakhawaj drum, flute and violin, with songs in Odia and Sanskrit. Since the 1960s the solo recital has followed five items. Mangalacharan opens it with an invocation. In Batu the dancer starts from chauka at a slow tempo and builds the pure-dance technique. Pallavi elaborates a melody in a raga (melodic mode) through movement. In Abhinaya the dancer acts out sung poetry, often a song from Jayadeva's 12th-century Gita Govinda. Moksha closes in pure dance.