Orissa
Orissa is a state on the east coast of India on the Bay of Bengal. I travelled there with my friend, Deepti Gupta, a traditional Kathak and Chau dance artist. She wanted to visit her guru in the artist village of Rajhurapur. There are many marvelous sights to see in Orissa and our travels took us to the Konark Sun Temple and nearby Chandrabhaga Beach which we visited at dawn on New Year’s Day and were surprised to find a few hundred Muslims celebrating the end of Eid-al-Adha. We visited Bhubaneswar, an important Hindu pilgrimage centre, which is home to over 1000 temples, Puri (the abode of Lord Jagannath), and tribal villages along the way. The highlight of the trip was Rajhurapur where we saw traditional Orissan crafts and painting, and met the unique Gotipau dancers who did an impromptu performance for us.
In Oriya colloquial language ‘Gotipua’ means single boy. Some historians date this dance tradition to the 15th C and since the Vasishnavs were not approving of females in dance performances the boys were dressed up to play the female roles.
Under the tutelage of Gotipua Guru Maguni Das, several Gotipua dancers are learning the finer elements of Gotipua dance. There are four to five boy dancers in a Gotipura troupe. The dance performance begins with an invocation to five Gods and Goddesses, which is known as Bhumi Pranam. Then the pure dance or nritya is performed which is followed by Pallavi. The gestures, or Bhangis, are very simple in Gotipua dance, but the movement can be highly acrobatic. They practice yoga as part of their training.