The beautiful Odissi Guru’s gracious smile is the sweetest reward for her disciples. She prefers to be addressed as “Maa” (mother) instead of “Guru Maa”. Abhinaya is her power, and humility her jewel. Minati Mishra, who recently performed at ‘Samsmaranam’, an event organised in Bhubaneswar to pay a tribute to Odissi’s legendary exponent Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, is now writing a book, Devotional Dances: A Special Reference to Odissi. She hopes to finish writing the book within a year.
“The book comes from years of sadhana,” says Minati, 78, the world’s oldest performing Odissi dancer today. “Dance is a way of life and a means to attain moksha,” she says. Having done her doctorate in Natyashastra, she has been performing for 60 years. Even today, she practices dance, and meditates for three hours every day. “This gives me strength, peace and solace to my soul,” says the classicist.
Though Minati is based in Switzerland, she comes down to Odisha every year for six months to participate in Odissi festivals. In Switzerland, Minati teaches the theoretical aspects of Odissi in her school Kalinga Kala Tirtha.
Born and brought up in Cuttack, the cultural capital of Odisha back then, she took to dance at the age of seven. “As a kid, I used to visit the Annapurna theatre with my parents. Once I got to see a dance performance by Laxmipriya Mohapatra, wife of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. I fell in love with the dance at first sight and asked my parents to allow me to learn it. In the 1940s, being a dancer carried immense social stigma. My father agreed on a condition. He wanted me to complete my education,” she adds.
She was introduced to Odissi by Kabichandra Kalicharan Patnayak, the guru known for his pioneering in-depth research on Odia dance styles. In the 1950s, Minati started training under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Upon completion of her studies, she availed a special scholarship of the Odisha Government to go to Rukmini Devi Arundale’s Kalakshetra in Madras. “I learnt Bharatanatyam from Chokalingam Pillai, but I decided to give up the dance form following an advice by dance critic Charles Fabri who had seen me performing Odissi in New Delhi,” she says. Minati has the unique distinction of learning from and collaborating with all the three first-generation gurus of Odissi dance — Guru Pankaj Charan Das, Guru Deba Prasad Das and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. She has incorporated their distinct styles into her dance.
She was also instrumental in giving Odissi music and dance an academic avatar. When the State Government established the Bhubaneswar-based Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in 1964 to revive Odisha’s cultural heritage, Minati took over as the principal of the college in 1966. She manned the post for 25 years (1966 to 1991) and in the meantime, created syllabus for taking up Odissi dance and music as subjects of degree education.
Though Minati is not happy with the shape Odissi has taken today, she feels the dance form has been reduced to a commercial venture. “Dancers are taking up Odissi for instant recognition. Teachers want to mint money,” she remarks. According to Natyashastra, there are hundreds of bhangis (stylised poses), karanas (yoga-based body positions) and 36 types of eye movements in Odissi. “A six-month crash course will not teach all this. It needs a lifetime. Sadly, no one today is ready to give a lifetime; everyone is looking for publicity, recognition,” she adds.
Minati’s Treasure Trove
■ Elements from folklore, Odisha’s temple sculptures, and Mahari and Gotipua dances.
■ The devotional element in Odissi. She is known for her rendition of Mangalacharan, the dance of invocation and Jagannath Stotram.
■ The Solo format. Minati believes that a dancer can prove ‘angasudhi’ (perfection of body movements), postures, ‘abhinaya’ only in the solo format.
