Gotipua
traditional dance of Odisha
Gotipua (Odia- ଗୋଟିପୁଅ, pronounced goṭipuå) is a traditional dance form in the state of Odisha, India, and the precursor of Odissi classical dance. It has been performed in Orissa for centuries by young boys, who dress as women to praise Jagannath and Krishna. The dance is executed by a group of boys who perform acrobatic figures inspired by the life of Radha and Krishna. The boys begin to learn the dance at an early age until adolescence, when their androgynous appearance changes. In the Odia language, Gotipua means "single boy" (goti-pua). Raghurajpur, Odisha (near Puri) is a historic village known for its Gotipua dance troupes. The dance of the Gotipuas is accompanied by traditional Odissi music with the primary percussion being the Mardala.
Dancers
To transform into graceful feminine dancers the boys do not cut their hair, instead they style it into a knot and weaving garlands of flowers into it. They make up their faces with mixed white and red powder. Kajal is broadly applied around the eyes to give them an elongated look.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gotipua” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.