How Sharmila Biswas’s choreography brings new perspectives to Odissi

Odissi dancer-choreographer Sharmila Biswas is known for imaginative and unusual productions. She goes beyond the literal, and challenges the idea that classical dance is rigid, narrow and far from current – ​​her recent performance at the Bangalore International Center proved this.

Even though her choreography may sometimes seem to deviate from the norm, she is careful to maintain the look and feel of the classical dance style. But Sharmila and her disciples do some things quite differently. She often appears as a narrator, reading program notes from a stylized red book. Similarly, when the show ends, instead of the traditional invocation, she showers some white flowers at the edge of the stage, before going into the darkness.

Sharmila Biswas recently performing at Bengaluru International Centre. , Photo Credit: Courtesy: BIC

In this way, Sharmila treats the venerable tradition as a very heavy subject, but considers it a lived, felt and shared community experience that also allows room for gentle humor and joy.

It is hard to ignore the joy that is found in a piece like ‘Gati Vilas’ performed by OVM (Odissi Vision and Movement in Kolkata) students Ragini Hindocha, Kaushik Das, Deepjoy Sarkar and Biswajit Mondal. Next came ‘Murta Maheshwar’, where Shiva is portrayed as the protector of animals – royal as a lion, powerful as a horse, gentle as a swan, musical as a cuckoo, graceful as a peacock and precise as an eagle.

Students of Sharmila Biswas depicted various attributes of Shiva in a group presentation titled ‘Murta Maheshwara’. , Photo Credit: Courtesy: BIC

Sharmila explains that her dancers at OVM are also familiar with music and theatre, and have used them effectively in their dance. “None of this should be clearly visible to the audience, though,” says Sharmila.

touch of truth

In ‘Vilasini’ she gives us the experience of understanding the mind of an aging dancer. She begins by narrating the story of Mehari, a retired temple dancer, who one day catches a fleeting glimpse of herself in a few drops of water and begins to imagine her young, beautiful self. She starts dancing in her courtyard again, without caring about her aging body. She invites into her home the crowd that has gathered to see her. Sharmila narrates this story in minimal gestures. As the older dancer, she brings a sensitive openness and a dash of humor.

In recent years, Sharmila has transformed her attire to include Oriya weaves, flowers and touches of silver. Research has been a constant endeavor for Sharmila and has enabled her to gather stories and material that deepen the contextual setting and cultural nuances of her dance.

folk to classical

A well coordinated performance by the students of Sharmila Biswas at Bangalore International Centre. , Photo Credit: Courtesy: BIC

Many of his choreographies use the musical traditions of Odisha. In a piece like ‘Dhvani Pratidhwani’, four dancers play along to the rhythm, their dance symbolizing the different rhythm styles associated with Shiva – blurring the lines between folk and classical.

Constantly expanding her artistic exploration and borrowing from other performing arts, Sharmila, inspired by the synthetic mind of a researcher, offers new perspectives in Odissi.