The Dance of Beauty

A friend of mine who study Odissi dance as well, approached me some days ago saying: "You know, if I had do describe Odissi in one word, I would say 'Beautiful'!" At first it sounds too simple of a description; all this grace, power, complexity of foot work, harmonious movement, emotional expressions, deep meanings... - but in fact, after I gave it a little thought, I'm completely in agreement. BEAUTY is one of those few quintessential words I use for describing Life's essence. Much like LOVE. BEAUTY is the culmination of grace, fluidity, power and Harmony. Beauty is integral of life and is inherently 'feminine' energetically. I've noticed that I often trigger somebody when I dare to say "Beauty is our power as Women". I think most women don't view themselves as beautiful 'enough', try to avoid being classified as 'beautiful' in favor of 'smart' or intellectual, or they hide or unaware of their efforts to constantly beautifying themselves and seek beauty. Whether is by buying (and loving it!) new clothes, jewelry, purses, shoes, nail polish...having a new hair cut, pampering in any way, exercising, enjoying beautiful flowers, food, fabrics... all of these and more are actions motivated by the yearning of embodying beauty. I dare to say that Women, who do not care to look beautiful and attractive in one way or another, are disconnected from their feminine essence. Beauty is at the core of who we are. We are beautiful, and living in harmony is our natural gravitation.

Beauty is often simplified to mean external and subjective kind of beauty. In one hand it is often seen as inferior to 'intellect' or wisdom, and on the other hand it's exploited and overly pursued in a superficial way that can never fulfill oneself. Perhaps because 'beauty' is fundamentally at the core of life pursuit, it has been overly used, and lost it's brilliance as a description word. It has been reduced to most commonly mean 'Physical Beauty' or often interchangeable as 'sexy', and the kind that is in fashion and socially agreed upon.

Here in India, one of the key words people use to denote beautiful is 'Smart'. You know, well dressed, well groomed, elegant etc. It took me forever to understand what it means. I was very confused the first few times my Odissi teachers would tell me to 'look smart'. How the heck is I suppose to look smart when I'm dancing? And why is it so important that I'm smart or looking like one? Well, I soon realize it means beautiful, in an elegant way. Looking smart while dancing means doing your dance fully and neatly, with elegance and vigor. It means giving it all you can.

 Since English is my second language, I tend to look at it with fresh eyes, and I find it interesting that smart means both intelligent and beautiful...so perhaps these two are not in opposition to each other but one and the same?
Perhaps if I had to describe Odissi in one word, I would use 'Smart'...