Aruna Mohanty (born 4 April 1960) is an Odissi dancer, choreographer and guru. She is currently the Secretary of the Orissa (Odisha) Dance Academy.[1] She has received a number of awards for her work, including the Padmashree award.
She has also received training in Odissi music from Nirmal Mohanty and Shantanu Das.[2]
Career
Aruna Mohanty has nearly five decades of experience as a dancer and choreographer.[3]
Her choreographed works include Srushti O Pralay depicting the super cyclone that hit Odisha in 1999, Sravana Kumar, Kharavela, Jatra Baramasi, Gatha Odissi, Pratinayak, Krishna Sharanam, several Ashtapadis from Jayadeva's Gita Govinda, andSiddhartha based on the novel of the same name by the German novelist Hermann Hesse.[4]
She has used her art to examine contemporary and social issues; for example. in Naari, gender stereotypes and the status of women in society are explored through the lives and stories of several women in Indian literature and history, such as Sita, Draupadi, Mandodari and Nirbhaya.[5][3]
She has conducted research on dance, focusing on topics such as the representation of the male dancer in classical sculpture and the evolution of Odissi in the post-Independence era.[6]
