Monalisa Ghosh

🪔 About

Monalisa Ghosh is a leading exponent, choreographer, and teacher of Odissi dance, recognized nationally and internationally. She received her initial training at KalaVikash Kendra in Cuttack, Odisha, under the tutelage of Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena, and further honed her skills under the legendary Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra and Smt. Sanjukta Panigrahi. She also trained under Guru Raghunath Dutta. Ghosh began her performing career in 1983, gracing prestigious dance festivals and conferences organized by institutions such as the Sangeet Natak Academy, ICCR, and the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) across India. She is noted for presenting approximately 50 solo Odissi performances annually in Western countries. Since 1991, she has conducted lecture-demonstrations abroad, educating audiences on the philosophical and therapeutic aspects of Indian classical dance. Her research on dance as therapy has been published in the German daily, Stuttgarter Zeitung, and she delivered a lecture on the subject at Tubingen University in Germany in 1995. She regularly conducts intensive workshops at the Afro-Asiatic Institute in Vienna and the Nritya Vikash School of Odissi dance in The Hague. In 2000, Monalisa Ghosh founded Kalajyoti, a Gurukul-style institution in Kolkata dedicated to Odissi dance. Kalajyoti inaugurated its own theatre, Kalamandap – The Ethnic Theatre, on April 13, 2019. She is a senior empanelled artist of ICCR, an examiner for Rabindra Bharati University, a judge for Rajya Sangeet Academy and Yuba Utsab, and the Head of the Department of Dance at Suranandan Bharati. Her choreographic works include "Geet Govindam" with Dutch students, which received acclaim in 2004, and "Bharat Tirtha – Timeless India," an English version of Rabindranath Thakur's work, featured on Doordarshan Kolkata. Awards & Honours: Nrutyasri, Singarmani, Outstanding Young Person of Calcutta '99 (1999).