Gotipua

Understand

Where Gotipua comes from

Gotipua (literally 'boy with balls') is a form of traditional Odia dance performed by boys who dress as girls. The form originated in the 16th-17th centuries as an alternative to the mahari tradition of temple women, with male prepubescent dancers taking the place of women in the dance repertoire in the absence of adequate mahari performers. The form is preserved at the Dakhin Odisha and Puri region temples and by hereditary Gotipua troupes, and was the direct teacher from which the modern Odissi dance was revived in the 1950s and 1960s. Many leading Odissi performers including Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra began as Gotipua artists.

How it's practiced

Gotipua is performed by troupes of 4-6 young boys, who dress in elaborate female traditional Odia dance costume — the stitched Odissi sari in red, the heavy silver jewellery, the elaborate face-paint with the Kohinoor-shaped eyes, the tasselled silver belt and the bamboo frame under the skirt that gives the dancers the classical women's silhouette. The dance is performed to the vocal Odissi music and to the Mardala drum, often in the temple courtyard or at village festivals. Poses, acrobatics and the abhinaya are emphasised, and the dance builds from invocation to the dance proper with the powerful and precise footwork (tatkar) of the Mardala accompaniment. Costume is the stitched sari and the silver belt, with brass ankle bells.