Guru Surendra Nath Jena

Lisa Roy

Guru Surendra Nath Jena

Life is a story of emotions(rasas) and one of the best ways to express emotions without uttering a word is dance. It is a type of art that is created by consciously replicating specific sequences of human motion. This is why Guru Surendra Nath Jena included the beat of everyday life into his Odissi dance interpretation. The resulting style, which became recognized by his name, is widely regarded as considerably different, if not radical, from that of his contemporaries. This was his road to the sublime, where he danced to express his love for God.

An ODISSHI dance; Image Source: thesamikshya.com

This adventure did not come to an end with his death in 2007. It was carried and carried forward by his children. They have continually worked to raise awareness about the causes and philosophy of Guruji's style in order to make it more generally known. Guru Pratibha Jena Singh, his eldest daughter who was his disciple also, found the Nrityashilp Guru Surendra Nath Jena Odissi Dance Foundation, who is his eldest daughter and disciple.

The International Festival of Guru Surendra Nath Jena is held every two years at the Foundation, among other things. The first was hosted in New Delhi, India, in 2016. Its main goal was to educate as many people as possible about Guru Jena's style and ideas. As a result, it included seminars, presentations, and the presentation of scholarly research papers on Guruji's Odissi dance form.

The International Festivals of Guru Surendra Nath Jena highlight the universal attraction of dance to the human heart. Guruji would have smiled in satisfaction if he could have witnessed them. After all, he had always believed that the Divine dwells in each soul and that the best way to encounter it is through Sahaj (natural) human life. Human life, with all of its colorful rasas.

India's history and culture have produced many beautiful and heartwarming traditions and beliefs. These customs are deeply established in the hearts of the people. People continue to follow and honor their ancestors despite the passage of time. In India's history, the Guru-Shishya tradition is one of the most important. It is still used today. Particularly in classical dance, one may immediately see the essence. One such lesser-known guru of the classical world is GURU SURENDRA NATH JENA of Odissi.

His extraordinary dance experience lasted decades. In the early twentieth century, he began his artistic career with the Jatra form. He soon became the director of Nagaspur's Sharda Kala Kunja, Odisha's most popular Jatra company in the mid-twentieth century, which played across the state's villages. He eventually became trained in Odissi dance and began teaching it in the traditional form in Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi, in the 1960s. Around the same time, destiny led him to the Konark Sun Temple in Odisha. The beautiful sculptures at its Nata Mandap and other temples in Odisha made him feel that these dancing stances should be considered as expressing a full piece of the dance rather than just being its centerpiece. This was the beginning of his departure from popular belief and convention.

He developed one-of-a-kind works like "Konark Kanti," "Shilp Chandrika," and "Shakti Roopa Yogini" after being inspired by this fact and tying the sculptures to Odisha's history, culture, and religion. His style was defined by a celebration of Odisha's rural daily life. It was also based on his own religious and societal beliefs that all Indian arts are interconnected.

Music, dance, yoga, painting, poetry, architecture, and mythology all have the same goal: to bring the artist to a state of spiritual joy (Atma-Ranjan), elevating the work above the level of pleasing other people (lok-Ranjan). Guruji's intimate discourse with the Almighty was also expressed through the poetry he composed and used in his compositions, such as "Venu Gatha" and "Achoot Kanya." He also brought to light a lot of Oriya poets' vernacular poetry.

He also popularised a number of Oriya poets' vernacular poetry. He poured everything of his emotion, experience, knowledge, and philosophy of Odissi dance into his famous work, Atman - Odissi Nritya Puran: History, Technique, and Aesthetics of Odissi Dance: History, Technique, and Aesthetics of Odissi Dance.