Odissi dance
A rigorous classical practice shaped by lineage, sculpture, rhythm, expressive storytelling, and years of patient refinement.
Operating since 1989 · Sydney and the Blue Mountains
Odissi Classical Dance & Music School by Nirmal Jena.
Learn Indian classical dance, music, culture, and spirituality. Over thirty-seven years of teaching, Nirmal has guided more than 2,000 students through this rigorous lineage.
A living tradition, taught with rigour, generosity, and devotion.
Nirmal teaches the Jena style of Odissi — his father's distinct family lineage — at studios in eastern Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and to the actors at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Students arrive as beginners, as serious performers, and as people seeking the practice itself.
The practice
Three forms. One classical practice.
Classical vocal training
Voice training for students who want to deepen musicality, breath, listening, and the relationship between sound and devotion.
Instrumental music
Classical foundations taught with attention to tradition, discipline, and the living connection between music and movement.
Origins
Recovered from temple stone, carried forward by family.
Odissi belongs to Odisha (Orissa), on the eastern coast of India. For centuries it lived inside temple worship, until colonial policy under the British Raj suppressed the temple-dance traditions that sustained it, and the form was very nearly lost.
Nirmal's father, Guru Surendra Nath Jena, recovered it from the stone itself. In 1967 he travelled to the Sun Temple at Konark and studied the sculptural panels of its nata mandapa — the dance hall — reading each carved pose as a unit of movement and turning the iconography of the walls back into living dance. The Jena style of Odissi grew out of that act of reconstruction.
The style is recognised for the depth of its basic positions, the undulating shape of its movement, and a solo-performance focus that explores the raudra and bibatsasentiments where many Odissi traditions do not. Nirmal carries the lineage forward as his father's son and student, and through his own translations of his father's writing.
“Nirmal Jena's performance of Odissi dance was one of those rare delights when a solo performer gives so generously. This was painting, sculpture -- a whole culture -- coming to life.”
Classes and rates
Choose how you'd like to study.
One-on-one
$65
per hour
Private tuition with Nirmal — pace, repertoire, and emphasis tailored to you.
Group, up to three
$100
per hour, for the group
Study with one or two others. Small enough for close correction, large enough to share rhythm and energy.
Complimentary intro · Your first 30-minute lesson is on us — meet Nirmal, try the practice, and ask any questions before you commit.
Enquire about a lessonMusic and dance performance trainingTeacher trainingOdissi dance as daily practiceMusic for meditation and kirtansDance for Humanity free training
Arts & Life Education Gurukul Ltd
Dance for Humanity. Free training, taught seriously.
Founded by Nirmal Jena and Chitrita Mukerjee, the Arts & Life Education Gurukul is an Australian registered charity with DGR status. Its program supports young people experiencing financial hardship through Odissi dance, music, and life skills — over years, not weeks.
Creativity, diversity, humanity, and sustainability are the values Nirmal and Chitrita work toward, in the school and through ALEG.
Sydney and the Blue Mountains
Reach out about classes, training, performance, or ALEG.
Tell us a little about what brings you here. Nirmal and Chitrita will reply personally.
We acknowledge the Bidjigal, Gadigal, Dharug and Gundungurra peoples of the First Nations as the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we teach, and pay our respects to Elders past and present.