In addition to the more usual tribhangi and chauka exercises, Guru Surendranath Jena has devised 24 dance units which are unique to his style. Based on both tribhangi and chauka, they are flowing movements out of which whole dance phrases are created.

A discussion of the technique is given in the DVD. The videoclips below show additional moments taken from the sessions at Triveni Kala Sangam, in New Delhi. Here we see students of Pratibha Jena Singh performing all 24 units (files units1 and units2) , followed by a khandi, a short phrase, and an arasa, a small dance section which here we see being taught by Pratibha (files khandi and arasa) .

units1.mp4

units2.mp4

khandi.mp4

arasa.mp4

The performers are Jaya Chattopadhyay, Timsi Bagaria, Aastha Gandhi and students from the junior class. Rekha Jena joins them in an invocatory dance, matrubhumi, of which only a short section is shown here, and Jaya performs a short excerpt from Dashavatar, a dance about the ten incarnations of the god Vishnu.

Photo: Jaya Chattopadhyay

matrclip.mp4

dashavatar.mp4

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