FORMS OF ODISSI PERFORMED IN RECENT DAYS

The first performance of Odissi Dance outside Orissa was given by Priyambada Mohanty and D.N Pattanaik in the Inter University Youth Festival held in Delhi in 1954. Eminent scholars like Mohan Khokar, Charles Fabri etc got interested in odissi thereafter and the famous art journal MARG brought out a special issue on Odissi Dance in 1960. In the year 1964 in a national seminar and festival held in Hyderabad Odissi received its first recognition as a classical dance system.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF ODISSI DANCE PERFORMED IN RECENT DAYS

1   Mangala charan is an invocatory piece where the dancer evokes the blessings of the lord and the audience.

 

 Batu nritya is actually an item of pure nritya held in hnour of Bakuta Bhairava, i.e Shiva. The dance is not accompanied by any song but throughout the item a refrain of rhythmic syllables is provided. This refrain is in the form of one-line UKUTA and as this is recited in the tala, different Jati-patterns are improvised and executed with feet.

 Pallavi  is elaboration of both the dance and the accompanying music. In the beginning the accompanying music. In the beginning the acconpaying vocalist sings the raga-murti or the raga-rupa of a particular raga( on which the pallavi music is based). The Sanskrit sloka, taken from orissan texts on music and describing the murti or image of the raga is enacted by the dancer. Then a line of Ukuta is sung basing on the notation of the particular raga. The dancer keeps beating on the feet. Then a number of pure nritya sequences follow. Intermittently different swara patterns and tala patterns are worked out through various movements. Pallavis are known after their ragas on which they are based, some popular pallavis are Basanta, Kalyana, Mohana.

 

Abhinaya is acting- out of the emotions expressed in the accompanying song or lyric. As we have mentioned earlier the astapadis of Jayadeva and Oriya songs from medieval poets of Orissa are sung. These poets mention the raga and sometimes even tala, which must be followed while singing it. This has helped to maintain the pristine purity of age-old style. Odissi music as an accompaniment differs from its solo performance. While in the former the stress is laid on histrionics of Abhinay, in the solo performance, as pointed out in chapter 4, the performer tries to maintain even keel between Ragang, Bhavang and Natyang. 

 

Mokshya Nata accentuates moksha (salvation) in more than one sense. The dancer reminds the audience in this concluding item the ultimate aim of art which is reintegration with the absolute. Form wise it means reintegration and founding up of the main theme and the main bhava. This is an item of pure nritya and is performed in fast tempo. There is no music. Only there is recitation of rhythmic syllables, which are also played out on the mardala.