Temple Art Come to Life: The Odissi Classical Style in Full Flower

Temple Art Come to Life: The Odissi Classical Style in Full Flower

Orissa Dance Academy at Ailey Studios

How marvelous, amid the furor of the ballet spring season at Lincoln Center, to spend an evening watching top-level Indian dance - and to recall that its Odissi genre is not only far older than ballet but just as beautiful, classical and compelling. Pure dance and “speaking” mime alternate and overlap; every part of the body is involved, not the least fingers and eyes; the tilt of the shoulder line from one diagonal to another becomes a richly harmonic effect, like a change from one full chord to another; long-held poses sing out with powerfully sculptural effect amid rapid rhythms.

Orissa Dance Academy From left, Arupa Gayatri Panda, Aruna Mohanty and Puja Jena of Orissa Dance Academy at Ailey Studios.

On Friday night the Orissa Dance Academy, a troupe making its first visit to New York at the end of an American tour, gave a single performance at the Ailey Studios. I had seen the troupe only in rehearsal last year at its home studios in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, the eastern Indian state from which the style derives. My impression then was that this was one of India's finest companies; Friday's performance confirmed this. It is directed by Aruna Mohanty, the company's most petite and remarkable performer, who dances its main solos and proves compellingly expressive. But on this tour she is joined by 10 other dancers - 6 men, 4 women - who display an impressive array of styles. I've never been so aware of the diversity of which Odissi is capable.

The program's two main drawbacks were taped music and no intermission, despite a two-hour running time. Taped music is often used in India, even in festival performances, but I couldn't help recalling how, at that Bhubaneswar rehearsal, music was played live (and recorded): the change in atmosphere and immediacy is intense.

Ms. Mohanty's solo, “Ramate Yamuna,” was the evening's most enchanting item. Illustrating part of Jayadeva's love poem “Gita Govinda” from the perspective of Radha as she searches for Krishna among trees and vines beside the river Yamuna, it demonstrated Odissi's capacity for abhinaya (expressive mime), but also moved seamlessly in and out of dance passages. (In all forms of Indian classical dance, abhinaya has much more dance potential than does explanatory mime in 19th-century ballet.)

The focus of Ms. Mohanty's gestures, often addressing one fixed point as if in dialogue with a person unseen by the audience, was itself spellbinding, opening up an interior world of the mind. At one point Ms. Mohanty indicated her heart to disclose love's wound; a moment later she rubbed the spot, now recovering from her affliction. Advancing or retreating, her rhythm made Radha's journey through space vivid. The placing of the ball of a foot, the opening of a hand as if sounding a bell, the movement of her torso as if softly blown by feeling: all wonderful.

Yet the larger revelations of the evening were in the group dances, showing Odissi's potential for ensemble complexity. The program included an introductory “Pancha Bhuta” invocation, representing the elements of nature; a pure-dance “Pallavi”; and “Rasa in Ramayana,” a depiction of seven of the nine universal emotions (rasas) as enacted in the epic “Ramayana.” Facets of the history of Odissi emerged, with references to the Gotipua boy performers (playing women's roles and using acrobatic backbends). The male performers were far from alike - one was broad-chested, another willow-slender - but all showed the enthralling Odissi qualities for physical pliancy, rhythmic vigor, hewing and holding three-dimensional shapes, and eloquently communicative face and hands.

Another dance, “Srusti ‘O' Pralaya” (“Creation and Destruction”), led by Ms. Mohanty, featured some of the evening's most ravishing steps and gestures. The final tableau - with all the dancers surrounding Ms. Mohanty like a close grove, while she alone rippled - haunts the memory.

And the finale - in which Ms. Mohanty did not dance - showed, with ever more intensity, the full resources of Odissi. Called “Swargaadapi Gariyasi: Vande Mataram,” it drew imagery from the dance bas-reliefs at the great temple at Konark; while its fullness of footwork and upper-body vitality made as much impact as any sculpturally statuesque moments. Arms fluttered, shoulders were shaken, hands clapped. The flat soles of feet were stamped percussively, dancers advanced making pulsating use of heel or the ball of the foot, and the action of instep and thigh in sideways-skipping steps was irresistible. The stage was constantly enlivened by changing group geometries. May this company return to New York soon.

A version of this review appeared in print on May 27, 2013, on page C5 of the New York edition with the headline: Temple Art Come to Life: The Odissi Classical Style in Full Flower.