Featuring Guru Jyoti Rout & JKM Senior Dancers accompanied by a classical Odissi music ensemble on tour from Orissa, India

Odissi is an ancient, breathtakingly beautiful form of sacred dance, which was originally developed in the temple of Jagannath in Orissa, East India, as a form of worship and meditation. It was first encountered outside the temple in the early part of the sixteenth century.

A class of tender aged dancers known as Gotipuas began performing Odissi for the masses to convey the spiritual stories, while the Maharis (temple dancers) continued the tradition within the temples. Odissi is an expressive and sophisticated art form, which features poetic nuance and fanciful storytelling.

Highly stylized in nature, it utilizes powerful, energetic footwork (tandava), juxtaposed with sinuous, graceful feminine postures and movements (Lasya). Handed down from teacher to disciple for thousands of years, Odissi emphasizes, and in fact, centers around spirituality and devotion.

JYOTI ROUT

Odissi Guru Jyoti Rout says that one of the highlights of her career was having the opportunity to dance in the Jagannath temple in Puri in 1993. Of course, this is just one of many great moments in the life of this talented performer and teacher.

She began her training at Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, under the guidance of Guru Deba Prasad Das and Guru Pankaj Charan Das. There, she received a masters degree in Odissi dance, as well as a degree in classical singing and in Chhau dance. 

Jyoti's Odissi, while strong in form, has been most exceptional for its range and depth of expression. In her dance, she moves between rage, love, fear, and amusement with ease. And even within each emotion, she conveys subtle, almost imperceptible shifts in feeling with perfect clarity. She achieves each emotion with such a genuineness of feeling that everyone who sees her is touched.