Grace Has No Gender: Rethinking Masculinity and Femininity in Odissi

Abstract

This paper interrogates the presumed naturalness of gendered movement within Odissi, arguing that the discipline's association of particular gestures, costumes and expressive registers with masculinity or femininity constitutes a culturally produced convention rather than a biological given. Employing Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, the paper traces how femininity became inscribed upon Odissi through the devotional Mahari tradition, while the Gotipua tradition—in which young male dancers embodied the same feminine-coded vocabulary—evidences that such qualities are constituted through repetition rather than inherent to female embodiment. It further considers how colonial-era codification consolidated these distinctions, and how contemporary practitioners increasingly destabilise them through crossgender portrayals and revised costuming. Informed by the author's own training, the paper concludes that strength and grace operate as complementary, not oppositional, artistic competencies