A senior
dancer, Minati Misra was trained in Odissi by Gururs
Kelucharan Mohapatra and Debaprasad Das. She had also
received encouragement and guidance from the poet and
scholar Kalicharan Patnaik.
She
concentrated on Odissi devoting all her attention to
it and helped considerably in popularising the dance
form. She went to West Germany and did her Ph.d. in
Dance. After a stay of five years abroad, she
returned to Orissa and was appointed principal of the
Utkal Sangeet Vidyalaya at Bhubaneswar where she now
teaches Odissi in the Dance department. For her
services to the field of dance, she has received
several honours and awards including the award from
Orissa State Sangeet Natak Akademi.
