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Odissi

The Odissi is an Indian Classical dance from the Eastern state of Odissa. A staple characteristic of is the Tribhang, dividing the body into three parts: the head, bust and torso. The dance can be traced back more than 2000 years ago but was brought to near annihilation during the British rule period, where Christion missionaries launched the “anti-dance movement” in 1892, believing the Odissi dance, and many other dance forms to be “indecent” and associated with prostitution, . Therefore, the modern version of the dance after the independence of India is from reconstruction. The anti-dance movement was dropped, and several major dancers and poets, including Kavichandra Kalicharan Pattanayak, an Oriya poet, dramatist and researcher, who is given credit to name the dance as ‘Odissi', brought back the dance and many others with a period of renaissance and reconstruction.

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