page_title: Surendra Nath Jena
section_title: Beginning of Dance
hierarchical_section_title: Surendra Nath Jena / Career / Beginning of Dance
caption_attribution_description: English: Inspiration from temple
context_page_description: Surendra Nath Jena created an entirely new Odissi dance style with an oeuvre of many compositions. This dance style incorporates the various aspects of Indian culture, such as temple sculpture, ancient dance, Sanskrit and vernacular literature, yoga, traditional painting, manuscripts, and philosophy.
  The entire music and dance choreography of these compositions were by Jena himself.
context_section_description: Guru Surendra Nath Jena spent six months in Kolkata, to learn the art of Kathakali from Bal Krishna Menon. This Kerala dance form was highly sophisticated as compared to Jatra, which is why he decided to learn it. But he could not complete his learning due to lack of money. In the 1950s, Odissi developed a dance form that was rediscovered by Oriya artists, scholars, Gotipua Gurus and Maharis named Jayantika. He spent the first five years studying the style recreated from the testimony of old Devadasis/Mahari dance and gotipuas, or young boys dressed up as women who had replaced the Maharis. With the completion of his study, he received the Nrutya Bhushan degree in Odissi Dance in the year 1965–66.
caption: Inspiration from temple
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