Bhava and Rasa in Odissi
Classical dance forms of India have power of enthralling audience and taking them to a whole new meditative level. It has the energy that flows through the audience body to the audience’s mind.
Whether the dance performed is a pure dance or Abhinaya, it is complete only when the Bhava presented communicated to the audience.
Bhaav
Expressions completes the dance. In Abhinaya, dancer expresses characters through their facial expression and body language. It is beauty of classical dance that performer has to feel everything through his/her heart to actually present it. A dancer is not a person that he/she is in this real world, one has to go out of himself , leave his identity and be the one who he is enacting. A classical dance is thus a meditation where one leaves oneself and goes to another world , it is a form of worship.
Not only abhinaya, a pure dance like Manglacharan, Battu and Basant Pallavi also requires expressions. For example, in Manglacharan we worship God, hence a dancer connects with the supreme power. In Battu, we express musical instruments and dance of Battukeshwar lord. In Basant Pallavi, dancer expresses Basant or Spring Season and says look how beautiful and mesmerising is the spring season.
Infact, I learnt a new thing. There is a Abhinaya item “Dekhi Bo” i.e. a Oriya song where a Gopi explains Krishna to her friend. In a single song many times we show Krishna’s flute through the same hand gestures. But the same gesture has different meaning every time we show it, sometimes we are showing how krishna holds the flute, sometimes the swaras that comes out when krishna plays the flute and sometimes simple krishna holding the flute. Gesture is same but bhava is different and that is the responsibility of dancer to depict all different bhavas clearly through dance.
When a dancer feels the situations in dance or meaning of the dance item though his heart and dance , it is Bhava.
Rasa
Bhava starts with the dancer and when it reaches to the audience and audience feel it, it becomes Rasa. A classical dance has amazing capability to fill the surroundings with a Rasa, and take everyone in surroundings through it.
It is like a dancer first collects the energies from the world , gives them rhythm through playing music using her body and then let the rhythmic, organised or you can say energy with a specific meaning or purpose flow through her body to everyone else watching.
I have seen a lot of amazing live performances and I have tasted the rasa a number of times. One must go to live performances and feel it. It calms your mind and body.
Learning the process of creating Rasa and Bhava transforms a dancer within. She feels a blessing and completeness that she could make her audience feel the same energy and connection with God as she feels herself when she danced.