Public Talk ~ 2025 Alma Hawkins Visiting Chair: Bijayini Satpathy
Monday, October 27, 2025
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Kaufman Hall ~ Dance Theater 200
Uncomplicating Tradition
Finding new formal, sentimental and presentational directions drawing upon the salient, elemental and essential nuances of Odissi lexicon for a personalised choreographic interpretation.
About Bijayini Satpathy
Bijayini Satpathy, a preeminent master of Odissi on the global stage, has enjoyed a prolific career spanning more than three decades. Her first self-choreographed work, Abhipsaa - A Seeking, received commissions from Duke Performances, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and was supported by NEFA's National Dance Project. Satpathy has served as the artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum during 2021-22, culminating in four gallery presentations and an evening length production, Doha. In 2020, Satpathy received the prestigious New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award, and was recognized as the best solo dancer by Dance Magazine in 2019. Her outstanding contributions to Odissi in education and performance were honored again with the Dance Magazine Award in 2023. Satpathy has been a fellow at the Center for Ballet Arts, New York, and a fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio, in 2024, to further her research on Odissi performance and training pedagogy. In India, Bijayini Satpathy has received coveted awards like Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar, Mahari Dancer Award, and Nrityachoodamani.