Dancing the Gods: Night Three - Bijayini Satpathy

Dancing the Gods: Night Three - Bijayini Satpathy (Odissi)

Co-Presented with World Music Institute

Night Three| Bijayini Satpathy - Abhipsaa - A Seeking | Solo Odissi

An annual festival of Indian dance in its fourteenth year, Dancing the Gods is curated by Rajika Puri, acclaimed dance storyteller, and co-presented with the World Music Institute. This year’s festival features three accomplished artists highlighting dance forms from across India: Mythili Prakash (Bharatanatyam), Parul Shah (Kathak) and Bijayini Satpathy (Odissi).

Night Three features Bijayini Satpathy in ABHIPSAA - a seeking, a work reimagining classical Odissi forms through modern interpretation, charting a journey of discovery in physical, emotional, and spiritual realms. 

Each evening’s performance will be preceded by a special presentation honoring Rajika Puri and her visionary leadership and dedication to the festival throughout the years. Please join us as we express our immense appreciation to Rajika for her vital contributions to the festival’s longstanding success as well as to the broader cultural landscape of New York City.

The presentation of ABHIPSAA - a seeking was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

Bijayini Satpathy
Bijayini Satpathy, a distinguished master of Odissi on the global stage, has enjoyed a prolific career spanning more than three decades as a highly acclaimed performer, master teacher, and esteemed scholar. In 2019, at the age of 50, Satpathy embarked on a distinctive solo journey to expand the tradition through her own choreographic works. The premiere of her debut self-choreography, "Abhipsaa - A Seeking," in 2021 at Duke Performances garnered widespread praise for its compelling exploration and reinterpretation of the ancient tradition, propelling Satpathy to the forefront as a choreographer. Commissioned by Duke Performances and Baryshnikov Arts, with support from NEFA's National Dance Project, the New York premiere of "Abhipsaa - A Seeking" was hosted in 2023 by Baryshnikov Arts, preceded by a virtual presentation in 2021 featuring a conversation between Bijayini Satpathy and Mark Morris with an introduction by Mikhail Baryshnikov. She was also invited in 2023 to perform her audience favourite work “Sitaharan” with live music at the 20th edition of  Fall for Dance, New York City Center.

Satpathy was an invited scholar to the Rockefeller Foundation’s  Bellagio Residency 2024 to further her research and development of the Odissi training pedagogy. She was also a 2023-24 fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, deepening her choreographic vocabulary. As the artist in residence at the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Live Arts 2021-22, Satpathy drew inspiration from four iconic galleries, engaging with architecture, ancestry, stories, legends, and aesthetic elements. Satpathy considers this endeavor to be her most experimental work, which culminated in “Doha” building on movement explorations at The Met Cloisters, the Modern and Contemporary Art wing, the Islamic Art wing, and the Astor Chinese Garden Court. Dance Magazine observes, "When Bijayini Satpathy dances, the air around her changes… everything beyond the world she creates onstage seems to dissolve."

Her exceptional contributions to Odissi in Education and Performance were recognized with the Dance Magazine Award in 2023. In 2020, she received the prestigious NY Dance and Performance Bessie Award, and in 2019, Dance Magazine acknowledged her as the Best Solo Dancer. In India, she has been honored with the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar and the esteemed Nritya Choodamani title from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai.

Satpathy cultivated her passion for Odissi in Orissa and spent 25 years at Nrityagram, where she was a principal dancer, teacher, researcher, and administrator from 1993 to 2018. Discovered by Nrityagram's founder, Smt. Protima Gauri, she collaborated closely with Artistic Director Surupa Sen, achieving global recognition for their distinctive duets. Her profound understanding of integrated physical conditioning for Odissi, combined with expertise in Yoga, Natyashastra, Kalaripayattu, western techniques, anatomy, and kinesiology, led to her role as Nrityagram's Director of Training and Outreach, elevating the international standing of the school for its distinctive training approach.

Regularly invited by cultural organizations and educational institutions as a speaker and scholar, she has been featured twice at the NY City Center Studio 5, in 2021 and recently in 2023, for lecture demonstrations of her pedagogy. Since 2023, Satpathy has continued to host an annual residential workshop in India, attracting students from around the world. In 2015, she held the position of Regents Residency Lecturer in the Department of World Arts & Cultures/Dance at UCLA.

Satpathy's essay "The ever-expanding horizons of the world of Odissi" in The Oxford Handbook of Indian Dance, edited by Anurima Banerji and Prarthana Purkayastha, is scheduled for publication in 2024 by Oxford University Press, New York.

About ABHIPSAA
In ABHIPSAA - a seeking, Bijayini Satpathy calls upon deep kinetic and emotional insights to evolve a revered cultural artform in an astonishing solo exploration. Comprised of four distinct original dances, ABHIPSAA charts a journey of discovery in physical, emotional, and spiritual realms. In this evening-length choreographic debut, Satpathy expands the parameters of the formal and representational norms of the Odissi tradition through both narrative and non-narrative dances - reimagining classical Odissi forms through modern interpretation.

Commissioned by Duke University and the Baryshnikov Arts Center, ABHIPSAA - a seeking, takes the audience on a profoundly personal journey. In collaboration with musicians, composers, lighting and theatrical designers, Satpathy’s performance is an otherworldly and transformative experience. A selection of the piece was presented virtually by the Baryshnikov Arts Center with introduction by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris in February 2021 and the full piece had its world premiere performances at Duke University in December 2021. This work was made possible with additional funding from the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Rajika Puri
RAJIKA PURI, an exponent of Bharatanatyam and Odissi, conceived of and named Dancing the Gods, Festival of Indian Dance. Well-versed in the dance world of India, and herself an exponent of Bharatanatyam and Odissi, she personally contacts fellow dancers in India – soloists and groups – and is involved in curating the programs they present. Rajika is also known for her particular brand of onstage pre-performance slide lectures – often with demonstration – on a subject connected with the dance forms being presented. (photo by David Rauch)

Doors: 7 PM | Celebration of Festival Founder Rajika Puri 7:15 PM | Performance:  8 PM

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