Nrityagram

To nurture dance professionals through the gurukula system, perform on the global stage, and forge community through outreach, dedicated above all to the practice and nurture of Odissi.

Nrityagram is India's first modern gurukula, or residential school, for Indian classical dance, conceived as a dance village and intentional community on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Founded by the Odissi dancer Protima Gauri, who left Mumbai in 1989 to build it on land near Hesaraghatta, it was formally inaugurated on 11 May 1990 by Prime Minister V. P. Singh. Its buildings, designed by the architect Gerard da Cunha in the vernacular style of the region using local stone, brick and thatch, house gurukulas, dance halls and residences. Today it is a collective of artists dedicated to Odissi, home to a gurukula-inspired school and the internationally renowned Nrityagram Dance Ensemble.

Protima Gauri, who had trained in Odissi under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, dreamed of a dance village where students could immerse themselves in dance amid nature. She secured land on lease from the Karnataka government and, from 1990, drew gurus to Hesaraghatta, among them Kelucharan Mohapatra for Odissi, Kalanidhi Narayanan for abhinaya, Kumudini Lakhia for Kathak and others, initially envisioning gurukulas for all the classical dance forms. After Protima's death in a Himalayan landslide in 1998, the institution focused on Odissi under her disciples Surupa Sen and Bijayini Satpathy, whose Nrityagram Dance Ensemble has since won worldwide acclaim, touring more than twenty-five countries and performing at major theatres including debuts in New York.