built up on the popular devotion to Lord Krishna and uses the verses of the
Sanskrit play Geet Govinda to depict the love and devotion to God.
    A typical performance includes the Mangalacharan (elaborate prayer
routine) and ends with Moksha, or the surrender of the dancer to the divine.
Odissi presents a fine fusion of Lasya (femininity) and Tandava (masculinity)
forms of the Indian Classical Dance. The dancer very efficiently moves from
one form to the other according to the need of the expressional number,
rhythmic syllables and abhinaya. The dance numbers are either in Sanskrit or
Oriya and the music is a combination of Hindustani and Carnatic classical
styles. Famous exponents of this dance form are: Guru Kelucharan
Mohapatra, the late Sanjukta Panigrahi, Sangeeta Dash, Priyambata Mohanty,
Kiran Sehgal, late Protima Bedi, Musiri Subramani Iyer, Aluka Kanungo,
Surupa Sen, Bijoyini Satpathy and various others like Sonal Mansingh,
Indrani Rehman and Malavika Sarukhai, who practise more than one style of
dance.
Manipuri
Manipuri dance, as the name suggests, comes from the Manipur region in the
Northeast. The Manipuris consider themselves the descendants of the
Gandharvas, the legendary musicians and dancers of the celestial courts of
Indira. Manipuri is in fact a generic name and it covers all the dance forms of
this land. If legends are to be believed, Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati
danced in the valleys of Manipur to the accompaniment of the Gandharvas to
the celestial light of Mani (jewel) from the head of the Atishesha, a serpent,
and that is how the dance has come to be called Manipuri.
    In this dance from, the Lasya (feminine) aspects predominate. The three
elements of nritta, nritya and natya find themselves equally balanced in this
form. Being rich in emotional content and sentiment of love, the Sringar Rasa
(erotic mood) predominates the entire performance. The orchestra of rasa
dance consists of khol or mridangam, manjira and flute. The art form
primarily depicts episodes from the life of Vishnu and is paradoxically a most
tender and vigorous form of expression. The text songs are from great, saint
lyricists like Jayadeva, Vidyapati, Chandidas or from Bhagavat Purana. The
costume is rich and ornamental and extremely captivating. The Cholom