"Orissi
[Odissi] may well claim to be the earliest classical
Indian dance style on the basis of archaeological
evidence, . . ." (Vatsyayan 34) affirms an
eminent dance scholar, Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, in her
book, Indian Classical Dance.
Inextricably
linked with the religious movements of Orissa, Orissi
shows traces of Buddhism, Tantrism (Buddhist and
Brahmanical), Saivism, and Vaisnavism, not only in
the figures depicted but also in the messages
conveyed. From its earliest evidence, Orissi was a
dance performed by women (Maharis), whether in court
or in the temple. Around 1600 A.D., male dancers
dressed as females, known as Gotipuas, gained
prominence.
The
dance remained an oral tradition through the
beginning of the twentieth century, in possession of
semi-literates who were not aware of the existing
Sanskrit texts on dance. Consequently, the movement
patterns, body positions, and hand gestures existed
in diluted, even debilitated, form without the
technical terminology that structures a dance format.
The dances were passed down, in the case of Maharis
(female temple dancers), from mother to adopted
daughter, and, in the case of Gotipuas, from teacher
to the dedicated boys. Dance by Maharis was totally
stopped in the temple of Lord Jagannatha after
independence due to the opprobrium attached to the
female dancers although singing continues to this
day. Lack of patronage made it difficult to continue
the Gotipua dance tradition in the temples of Orissa,
and financial duress drove the young Gotipuas to
jatras or roving theatre groups. (Vatsyayan 1974, 34)
They earned their living dancing interludes to
dramatic acts. Orissi had begun its move from temple
to stage.
Orissi
was revived in post-independent India, as a
neo-classical form, by a group of scholars and dance
practitioners/teachers, who formed the group known as
Jayantika. Each one of the four dance teachers,
revivalists of an old dance tradition, Pankaj Charan
Das, Kelu Charan Mahapatra, Deba Prasad Das, and
Mayadhar Raut, was characterized by a love of the
dance, a struggle through poverty and adverse
conditions in pursuit of their loved art form, and an
exposure to the art of stagecraft.
Although
Orissi moved from temple to theatre and lost some of
its spiritual quality, except as a dramatic device,
without this coming togetherof four great dancers and
the move into a theatre venture, the dance would have
been totally lost to posterity as an art form.
Orissi,
the classical style of today in India, has developed
from the gotipua repertoire, rather than the mahari
repertoire and technique, and overcoming all growing
pains, it has finally come into its own and taken
India's dance stage by storm. However, the dance
needs to move forward beyond the reconstruction and
technique. It needs to thematically encounter the
21st century. First and foremost, the dance needs to
be secularized while maintaining the spirituality.
Also, new themes have to be created, or old themes
have to be repackaged for global tastes. (excerpt
from Ratna Roy, Orissi Dance: In the Context of
Classical Dances of India, 2nd edition, 1996)
