“Manchapravesh” is a radical reimagination of an Odissi recital. Through the recasting of six iconic pieces in the Odissi canon, “Manchapravesh” undermines widely accepted understandings of genre while presenting new possibilities of what Odissi could look like, specifically from a queer, critical, diasporic lens. What if the sensuality and queerness erased from Odissi aesthetics and popular histories was returned to its grammar? What if the voices that are conspicuously absent from the canon could speak? What if Odissi, codified in the 1950s, could be viewed as a malleable, contemporary dance form rather than a purified, classical one with rigid aesthetic boundaries? What if Odissi, the product of diverse artistic influences, could reflect this diversity in its aesthetic representations today?

Through the process of reimagining Odissi, we can reimagine our world; “Manchapravesh” insists that the singular popular representation of Odissi is not the only way in which this form can be presented. This work hopes to offer a radical alternative to hegemony during a time of increasing state control of our reality, and insists that there is always an alternative, and perhaps better, way to live.