Embodied experience and awareness in Odissi dance training in India
What is it about?
Can one understand and remember the feeling of embodying the “correct” dance stance or movement internally? How to safely reach that place? How to continue performing while not being corrected by someone externally? Exercises and training methods based on embodied imagery, metaphor and sensory awareness are applied in Odissi dance training by some dance institutes and dancers in India. This article discusses how their practice provides some answers to the questions posed earlier and demonstrates a shift from the objectified to a subjective approach to the dancer’s body that empowers students/dancers to reclaim the ownership of their bodies, movements and performative experiences.
Why is it important?
This work highlights an essential block in the training process. It enables dance students to move towards ‘perfection,’ however, with a healthy, thinking, feeling, moving and agentive bodymind.