Thanks to the Indian Culture Center (ICC), a franchise of the Indian Council for Cultural Relation in Nepal, which is under the aegis of the Indian Embassy for showcasing true Odissi dance moves, an old classical dance originating from the state of Orissa in India. Based on archival and historical evidences, Odissi dance performance by the renowned Shinjan Nrityalaya Group from India unveiled the traditional moves of gods and goddesses that are considered to be 2,000 years old.
This form of dance which traces its origin in the ritual dances of the Devadasis, which translates into the female servants of God, Odissi dance came to Kathmandu as a beautiful bouquet of traditional beliefs and powerful expressions.
Clad in samalpuri sari, eyes decorated beautifully with thick layers of kajal, ghungroo (ankle bells used in classical dancing – especially in Kathak, Odissi and Bharat Natyam) tied on the legs with pushpa beda (crown made up of jasmine flowers) attached beautifully on the back of the head, Aloka Kanungo, the founder of Shinjan Nrityalaya, started the evening with spiritual moves.
As the evening progressed with other dancers from the Nrityalaya performing together, the whole ambience inside the Nach Ghar transformed into a beautiful temple where it seemed like the Hindu goddesses of the sculptures really came out in the real and performed aesthetically.
The troupe started with “Mahavidya”, an Odissi performance to signify Shakti or the formidable energy. The movement talked about the energy that is expressed in feminine gender is considered to be infinite. Without any lips singing and with only expressions, the first presentation was powerful enough to depict the four Mahavidyas: Kali, Sodashi, Chinnamasta, and Bagalamukhi.
Bottu, the second performance, was equally enthralling. Based on rhythmic patterns on the percussion instrument known as “pakhwaj”, the hand positions and the torso movements made the audiences glued to the moves. Mana Madhur, the third in line of dances, was more about fast footwork and ornamental hand gestures done gracefully in a lyrical dance number.
The fourth offering, “Dasavatar” (ten incarnations), depicted the stories of ten incarnation of Lord Vishnu in the form of fish, tortoise, boar, narsimha (man-lion), dwarf, the axman Parsuram, Prince Ram, ploughman Balram, Gautam Buddha, and the avenger Kalki through stylized movements, meaningful hasta mudras (hand gestures) and facial expressions. This item recalled the ancient story of Lord Vishnu and how he kept on vanquishing the evil spirits to restore peace and harmony. The final one “Mana Samhar” explained how every passage in Odissi dance comes to an end with a three-time repetition of a certain bowl known as “Tihai”. The different geometrical shapes made on the stage were elegant and the footworks complimented creatively with the musical notes.
No matter how beautiful the dance performances were, even the coordinator of the troupe Aloka Kanungo agreed that some of the moves they made during the event were quite alike to those of Bharat Natyam.
“Yes, some steps may have seemed like that of Bharat Natyam. But let me make this clear that Odissi dance has its own distinctive characters and is unique in its own ways,” she enunciated and made it even more precise, “We have unique characteristics like torso movements, tribhangi pose, our mudras are different than that of Bharat Natyam, and we have more to do with Abhinaya (acting) of gods and goddesses).”
Personally, Kanungo expressed her disappointment on how other modern forms of dancing like freestyle, salsa, flamingo and Bollywood dancing have become more popular in recent days in India through the promotion such dances are getting inreality shows.
“It’s sad but true that people in India have slowly forgotten the beauty and richness of the classical dances. They want fame, money and career. Sadly, classical dance is more like sadhana (meditation), and it offers spiritual beauty rather than material wealth,” said the dancing diva who still performs Odissi flawlessly even in her mid-fifties.
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