Inspiration for living a healthy embodied life.
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Learn Odissi
In Dance, we can express the sacred, the emotional, the sublime. While dancing, we experience the interconnectedness of humans, earth, heaven, and the cosmos. In Dance, we let our body speak where language cannot reach and embody our innate connectedness, the sacredness of being.
Rhythm is at the heart and base of all Classical Indian Dance and Music forms. The mood, flow, and expression - all emerge from the ground of time-cycles.
The main percussion instrument of Odissi Dance is the Pakhawaj, also known as the mridanga. Hindustani (North Indian) classical music uses the tabla and Carnatic (South Indian) classical music, the Pakhawaj. All of these drums are two-headed precision instruments played simultaneously in various ways to produce different kinds of sounds. These sounds are then strung together in sequences to create different rhythm patterns. The vocalizations of the actual sounds produced by the drummer, such as dha, di, naka, thini, dhin, tere, take, gadigane, jhom, dhage, and so on, are called bol.
The bols are combined together to create different rhythm patterns (Taals).
Commitment may have a bit of a negative air for some. It sounds like a chore, an obligation. Yet it could just as well translate as “devotion” and “dedication”. It is an integral ingredient in the formula to success.
The most profound role of a dancer is her ability to touch her audience deeply; her offering of an opportunity to transcend ‘ordinary’ moments into ‘extraordinary'.
Her presence is the center axis between heaven and earth, a pillar of light, connecting above and below, letting all manifestation revolve, rise and fall.
Despite the layers of tradition and ancient views embedded in this carefully structured classical dance form, it is alive and breathing with the movement of time. It is intricate and complex, yet inherently devotional and natural, as it is aiming to connect us with nature and the movement of the cosmos.
Odissi Dance is based in the Tantric-Yogic philosophy originated in East India. It suggests we all come from the same source, and head toward the same goal. Yet, source and the goal are no different, they are one and the same. What is this mysterious source / goal of our existence?
