Memoria, trasmissione e trasgressione nella danza Oḍissī contemporanea. Una ricerca sul campo tra biblioteche, scuole e palcoscenici

The dance style called Oḍissī today is the result of the Indian cultural revival of the twentieth century, during which teachers, talented dancers, scholars and researchers dedicated themselves to the discover and the study of manuscripts and in general literary, poetic, pictorial treatises, regional temples and iconography. Following the cosmological triad of sṛṣṭi, sthiti and pralaya, this work identifies three stages of Oḍissī dance: creation, transmission and transgression. This fieldwork in Orissa is deeply rooted in the Indian traditional context of the classical dance learning, the guruśiṣyaparamparā by which devoted students live together with their gurus as in a family for many years, learning the art of dance in all its numerous repertoire roles. The research focuses on the creative and productive process of the Indian classical Oḍissī dance’s contemporary choreographies, specifically the connection between hindū Goddesses worshipped in Orissa and contemporary Oḍissī dance, viewed most through the lens of the dancer. Furthermore, a special attention is given to the modern dance treatises never translated into English, three of which have been reported in the appendix with a translation from the original Oṛiyā language.