The dances of Orissa have classical as well as tribal manifestations. The traditional dance of Orissa is Odissi, which is one of the classical Indian dances. The Odissi dance, which originated in temples, has been flourishing since ages. Odissi is a lyrical dance, which is adored by the people all over the country.

In the 15th century, a detailed description of Odissi dance style was documented by Sri Maheswar Mahapatra. The gurus of Odissi dance still use his Abhinaya Chandrika as reference for the dance. Mahari, Nartaki and Gotipau were the three famous dance schools of Odissi dance. The women of Mahari school were attached to the deities in the temple. This tradition was called Devadasi tradition. The Nartaki tradition was developed in the royal courts. In the Gotipau school of dance, the young boys dressed themselves in female clothing, for enacting female roles.

The themes of Odissi dance are religious in nature. Some of the common themes of this dance form are love stories of Radha and Krishna. A recital of Odissi normally would have one or two ashthapadhis of Jayadev, which are poems of eight couplets taken from Jaydev's seminal poetic work, Geet Govind. Tribhangi position is the famous characteristic feature of Odissi dance. Tribhangi means the division of body into three parts, head, bust and torso. The important part of the dance is the 'mudra', which signifies a gamut of meanings through hand posturings. The dance ends with a mokshaya nata, depicting the release of soul to become one with the supreme power.

Odissi dancers still wear the pattern of costume which was worn by temple dancers in ancient times, with a few modifications. They wear nine-yard sari of silk in bright colours, and rich embroidery blouse and frills around the hips. They use alaka for head, kappa for ears, taiya for arms and bengapatia for waist. The instruments commonly used are bansuri, manjira, sitar and tanpura. This dance form of Orissa is famous all over the world for its grace, charm, beauty and enchantment.

There are many types of folk dances in Orissa. Chhau, Naga and Ghumara are the famous folk dances of this state. Chhau dance has many themes. It draws themes from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Krishna legends. The themes of puranic episodes like 'fight of Abhimanyu', 'killing of Mahishasura', 'Shiv Thandav', Kirat Arjuna', are shown in the chhau dance. The dance draws from even tribal themes like Sabara Toka, Kalachakra and Sabara Sabaruni.

Naga dance is performed by men in Orissa. Here the dancer wears special dress and dances with lots of weapons on his hands. His crown is decorated with glittering peacock feathers. He wears beads on the neck, feathers on his arm; flags on the arrows. Yellow colour powder is smeared on his body, and vermillion is applied on his forehead. He looks like a ferocious tiger. The singularity of this dance form is that it is not accompanied by any songs. Only sounds of battle drums accompany his dance.

Ghumara is a kind of pitcher-shaped drum that produces a musical sound. The dancer ties the ghumara with a rope round his neck and plays it. They dance is performed during social and religious functions. Bauli, humo, jhulki and puchi are some of the other folk dances prevalent among the tribal people of Orissa.

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