Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, based in the village of Nrityagram near Bangalore, India is regarded as one of the nation’s foremost dance companies, and leading exemplar of India’s classical dance form Odissi. A dance of love and passion, Odissi originated in the temples of Orissa in North East India. The form is marked by a sculpturesque sensuousness that transports audiences to enchanted worlds of magic and spirituality. 

Surupa Sen studied Bharatanatyam as a young child. As the first student at Nrityagram, she began her Odissi training with Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra. She also studied Odissi with Nrityagram’s founder, Protima Gauri, and Abhinaya with Smt. Kalanidhi Narayanan. Sen is now Nrityagram’s artistic director. Sen participated in the International Choreographer’s Residency at the American Dance Festival in 2000. She has since choreographed and performed work in India and around the world. 

Bijayini Satpathy began her Odissi training in Odisha at age seven. She made Nrityagram her home in 1993, and has since performed around the world with the Ensemble and as a soloist. Satpathy is the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Mahari Award (2003), awarded to the best Odissi dancer of the year; the Sanskriti Award (2007); Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (2007); and the prestigious Nritya Choodamani from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai (2011).