Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, and Manipuri
are some of India's traditional dance styles, as are Kathak, Bharatanatyam,
Kuchipudi, Kathakali, and Manipuri.
The current Orissi style has its origins in the dance
performed at the temple of the deity Jagannath in Puri, which goes back to the
second century B.C.E.
The main temple was constructed in the eleventh century,
while the natamandira ("dance-hall") was constructed around a century
later.
The poet Jayadeva, whose lyric song, the Gitagovinda, is the
only non-scriptural poetry that may be performed in the temple, lived during
the later period.
Padmavati, Jayadeva's wife, was one of the temple's dancers,
and it was she who initially performed sections of the Gitagovinda as a
sacrifice to Jagannath, according to legend.
Two types of temple dancers formed as the temple's dance
evolved: those permitted to dance in the inner sanctuary and those permitted to
dance in the natamandira.
A third sort of dance evolved in the seventeenth century,
when guys costumed as dancing girls performed for public pleasure both outside
and within the temple.
The men's dance was more athletic and acrobatic, while the
women's dance was gentler and lyrical.
Both aspects are combined in the current Orissi style.
The chauka ("square") stance, in which the feet
are spread wide and pointing in opposing directions, with the knees bent so
that the upper leg is parallel to the ground, is the most common.
The arms are held in a mirroring posture, bent at the elbows
and pointed straight down with the upper arms horizontal and the lower arms and
hands pointing straight down.
The dance's stylistic impression is one of roundness and
fluidity, which is created through rippling upper-body motions.
Orissi, like many Indian dances, has a well-developed
lexicon of gestures and expressions, allowing for intricate story-telling.
The move from tem ple to stage in the twentieth century
molded the present Orissi dance style; this change in venue was chiefly
responsible for its "classical" form being more tightly defined than
in the past.
Mohan Khokar's Traditions of Indian Classical Dance,
published in 1984, has further information.
