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Odissi Dance

Odissi dance is the form of classical dance that people have been performing in the Eastern State of Odissa. It is the dance of the Maharis, who are the devadasis. These devadasis used to perform it in front of the Lord, along with some singing as well. That was called Mahari Tradition. Basic classifications for the Maharis are only 2. As the Maharis performed in the Temple, so the classification is based on this fact.

However, after those Maharis Traditions, there was the emergence and evolution of Gotipua tradition. Gotipua were the young boys who were trained by the Maharis and these boys then perform the dancing after disguising themselves as girls. These were the boys who took this form of dance to the outside world.

The dance is really amazing and one striking difference can seen when you will see the dancers dancing on different lyrics, for one kind of lyrics, it can be tranquil, cool and calm, while for the other one, you can witness theses dancers taking some jerky movements. These lyrics were differentiated by the poets they were written. For instance, Maharis were used to perform on Jayadeva's Geet Govind and the Gotipua were used to dance on Oriya poets with some jerky movements.

Important thing to mention is that this dance form lost its subsistence that is the reason why you can now see the revived form of the Odissi dance. This dance form has been described by the scholars after performing an extensive search over the religious scriptures to define the ways and techniques of the dance. That is another reason why this dance form is exclusively religious in nature and specifically about the Lord Krishna. To present the dance you can see the use of different instruments, i.e. Sitar, Tanpura, Manjira etc.